KUBANG PASU: Bersatu information chief Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan today took a dig at the internal power tussle in Umno for derailing the tabling of the anti-party hopping bill in the Dewan Rakyat.
Wan Saiful claimed that the instability in Umno was also dragging the tabling of other bills, including limiting the Prime Minister's term as well as other initiatives meant to strengthen the country's institutions.
"Anti-party hopping bill, limiting the office term for prime minister, political funding, strengthening the country's institutions.
"Many of these agendas are being derailed because of internal power tussle in Umno, not because of internal tussle within the other parties in the government.
"I hope we can stop making excuses and focus on policies that are beneficial to the people and expedite whatever we can expedite," he told reporters after meeting taxi drivers in Changlun town here today.
Wan Saiful reiterated his call for the final draft of the bill to be made public so that the civil societies concerned could provide critical and constructive views to improve the draft.
"The draft should not be shared among politicians only.
"To me, its crucial that the final draft must be made public so that all the non-governmental organisations such as IDEAS, Transparency International Malaysia, Bersih, Bar Council and others that have been championing integrity and good governance issues can share their critical and constructive views to improvise the draft," he said.
Wan Saiful added that Bersatu had been consistent in supporting calls to table the anti-party hopping bill and the other bills to strengthen the country's institutions.
However, he said the onus was on the federal government to table the bill in the Dewan Rakyat.
"Personally, I will have to study the final draft thoroughly first before I decide on whether to support the bill or object it," he said.
Wan Saiful was responding to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar's statement yesterday that the much-anticipated anti-party hopping bill could be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat in July this year.
The Minister was reported as saying that if the bill could be tabled during a special sitting in June, before the scheduled July lower house of parliament sitting, the bill could be passed in both Houses of Parliament and gazetted in a couple of months.
He had said this would be in line with the consensus reached between the government and opposition parties through the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed last year to have the law gazetted before the 15th General Election (GE15).