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Reformati? Malaysian speaker’s ruling sparks protest and fears of renewed politics chaos
- Analysts warn the decision to allow party defectors to keep their seats could lead to a return of the country’s past turmoil
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Malaysia runs the risk of falling into another period of political turmoil, experts say, following a controversial ruling in parliament to allow opposition lawmakers to retain their seats after they were sacked by their parties for switching allegiances.
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Parliament’s speaker, Johari Abdul, was widely criticised for his decision last week to allow six former members of the opposition party Bersatu to keep their seats, a ruling that the opposition and civil society groups said went against the spirit of the anti-party hopping provisions in the federal constitution passed to curtail political instability.
Perikatan Nasional (PN), the Malay-nationalist opposition bloc that includes Bersatu, launched an armband campaign in parliament this week in protest of the speaker’s decision.
PN lawmaker Ermieyati Samsudin explained that they were wearing white ribbons around their left arms “as a protest against reformati”– a play on the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition’s slogan of “reformasi”, meaning reform in Malay, that sounds like “death of reform”.
Despite the protest, Islamist party PAS, another PN member, was quick to capitalise on the precedent set by Johari. On Tuesday, it announced the entry of a Malacca state elected representative from ruling coalition partner Umno into their fold.
Tuesday’s announcement was the first such case of an elected representative switching camps since a 2020 political coup that brought down the government of two-time prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.
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