Hamzah's plan to outmanouvre House Speaker

There is a rumour going around of something big could happen in the next Parliament seating when Opposition Leader, Dato Seri Hamzah Zainuddin put a motion to demand for the seats of 6 "sacked PPBM MPs" be declared vacant. 

The opposition expect the House Speaker Tan Sri Dato' Johari Abdul will not. Apparently Hamzah has planned a countermove using the same weapon and loophole in the Anti Hopping Act which Tan Sri Muhyiddin failed to exploit post GE15.

There will be speculation that it is Hamzah's respond to his son being charged for corruption. Any keen observers of politics knows it is only expected of him. Before the posting on the ensuing American leadership dilemma ariding from Donald Trump's conviction from his sexual tryst with a pornstar, this blog commented so of Hamzah. 

Mentioned in passing:

 

Despite all that happened, Hamzah remain relentless in his political manouvres against his old nemesis, Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Another Sheraton Move type of manovering is still being expected from Hamzah.  

In "Keluar Sekejap" to "Masuk Balik" or "Reformasi", it was also mentioned in passing that:

By Merdeka Day, there is speculation one can expect firework beyond the Independence Day firework. Whether it is political or social or economic in nature, something big is said to happen. 

That is not sure yet because the withdrawal of fuel subsidy and other economic, social, and political development is expected to occur. 

The 6 MPs of Bersatu which gave their support to Anwar used a loophole in the Anti Party Hopping law intentionally left behind by Tan Sri Muhyiddin for his own post GE15 manouvering. 

The law was structured as such that MPs will have to vacant their seat had they switch party. However, it does not apply for MPs currently offering support to Anwar. MPs sacked by the party will only be categorised as party-less independent. 

Realising he was outmanouvred, Muhyiddin resort to do amendements to PPB party constitution and it was approved by ROS. The party is empowered to automatically sack MPs that do not carryout party decision including supporting the decided choice of PM. 

Despite disputed by the affected 5 PPBM MPs, Bersatu have officially sacked them and now moving to the subsequent stage to request their seats as vacant in accordance to the amendment to Article 10 of the party constitution.

According to Iswardy Mordy, a popular, legally trained and "well briefed" PKR podcaster. the amendment to the party constitution cannot supercede Anti Party Hopping Law and Constitution. The Speaker is not obliged to decide based on PPBM constitution so the likelihood it will not be declared vacant in accordance to the law and constitution. 

Supporting it is the opinion by lawyer Mohamed Khatri below:       

It could make the party constitutional amendment made earlier by DAP and UMNO as inconsequential. Thus a source claim Hamzah has a card up his sleeve.

He will use the same loophole of supporting non-party leader does not tantamount to party hopping. Few MPs from BN, and Sabah and Sarawak will declare they will not support Anwar for whatever reason from complaining over allocation to non-fulfillment over MA63 promises. 

It is a possibility for certain MPs within UMNO or other BN component party but whoever would dare to do so will only make the move if the numbers are for certain. Currently there is no hype yet in that direction. Parliament seating is due for June 24th to July 18th.

And as Singapore's REFSA website wrote here, in October 2022, one way to do a Sheraton Move like manouvre is using the following loophole:

A major loophole that can be exploited is that anti party-hopping provisions cannot be invoked when a political party joins a coalition or leaves a coalition to join another. The exclusion of coalition hopping is provided in the illustration for the new Article 49A in the explanatory statement, which reads:

 “A member of Party A who is a member of the House of Representatives shall not cease to be a member of that House, if Party A, who is a member of a coalition of political parties, leaves that coalition whether or not Party A joins another coalition of political parties or forms a new coalition of parties.”

So happen this blog raised of this possibility earlier here in passing, in which readers may have missed and those in position chose to be in-denial. There was effort to double check and found no such plan yet. 

Nevertheless, if the plan exist, MACC and AGC will likely fast forward their already completed investigation in the weeks to come. 😊

It may not happen also because of the on-going murmurs of PAS in conflict with PPBM and optics by certain PAS state leaders to be friendly with PM, including the Menteri Besar of Kedah and Kelantan. Only the MB for Terengganu still remained adversarial towards Anwar. 

Just month ago there was another rumour in which Hamzah name cropped up and some royalty name thrown in. A new mega coalition from Umity Government and PN will emerge with Anwar offered as PM but without DAP. 

PKR have sink and swim with DAP thus unlikely to happen. More so at one time, Amanah is said to be closer to DAP than PKR. More time wasting politics to come. 

Seriously, the anti party hopping law need be tightened for the critically needed political stability. There have encouraging development on the economic front but still need effort and time. Please focus on the economy and execute the fiscal reform wisely.