KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s opposition leader Muhyiddin Yassin said on Tuesday that his party will take legal action over a decision by Parliament’s Speaker to allow four Sabah MPs to keep their seats instead of holding a fresh by-election to replace them, after their recent defections.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin is president of opposition Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, whose four MPs in eastern Sabah state claimed they had defected to an umbrella organisation, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), before Malaysia’s Nov 19 General Election in 2022.
Under Malaysia’s new anti-hopping law, MPs who defected from one party to another after the general election last year would automatically lose their seats, and a fresh by-election must be called.
They can retain their seats only if they defected before the polls, as claimed by the four lawmakers, or if the whole party decided to switch sides as a bloc to support another coalition.
The controversy arose after GRS, of which Bersatu is a member, switched sides after the general election to support the so-called unity government led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Bersatu remains an opposition party in the federal Parliament.
Speaker Johari Abdul, a member of Datuk Seri Anwar’s party, ruled this week that the four Sabah lawmakers can keep their seats as they had jumped to GRS prior to the polls.
PM Anwar has control of two-thirds of the 222-strong Parliament, meaning his government will not be affected even if a fresh by-election is held for the four seats.
But holding this special vote could reveal that Bersatu and its partner Parti Islam SeMalaysia remain on a winning path, called the “green wave”, that could weaken perceptions of the Anwar administration.
Mr Muhyiddin disagreed with the Speaker’s decision, saying the act by the MP quartet of moving to another faction – even before the general election – triggered a clause in Bersatu’s Constitution that terminated their membership, Malaysiakini news site reported.
He also said that GRS is not a political party but an umbrella organisation of which Bersatu is a founding member.
“Therefore, GRS cannot be defined as another political party, based on the spirit of Clause 10.2.3 of the Bersatu Constitution,” he said in a statement.
Further, Mr Muhyiddin added, there was also evidence that the four MPs were in Bersatu when they won the Nov 19 General Election.
Two days before nominations for the election, on Nov 3, 2022, Mr Muhyiddin said, Sabah Bersatu secretary Mohamed Razali Mohamed Razi had written to party headquarters with a list of GRS candidates attached.
On the list, the former premier said, the four men were listed as Bersatu members. He said he had submitted the said correspondence to the Speaker as evidence.
The four Sabah MPs who now support Mr Anwar are Mr Armizan Mohd Ali, Mr Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan, Mr Jonathan Yasin and Mr Matbali Musah.
On Dec 28, 2022, Bersatu Sabah MP Ronald Kiandee had written to the Speaker to claim that the quartet had to vacate their seats after they announced switching sides from Bersatu on Dec 10.
