KOTA KINABALU: The four members of parliament from Sabah at the centre of the anti-hopping law storm have memberships in both Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Sabah and Sarawak) Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali said he held memberships in GRS and Bersatu.
The GRS constitution has provisions allowing for direct memberships for individuals and unions between parties.
"I was involved in drafting the GRS constitution, so I know it very well.
"In GRS, there are also individual memberships and I contested in the 15th General Election on a GRS ticket," he said at a press conference here today.
The other three GRS MPs are Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan (Batu Sapi), Datuk Matbali Musah (Sipitang) and Datuk Jonathan Yasin (Ranau).
Armizan also said he had yet to decide to leave Bersatu.
"On my part, there is no decision yet to leave Bersatu. I explained that I contested the general election as a GRS member and used the GRS logo," he said.
Asked whether his remarks meant that there was no issue of party-hopping cropping up, Armizan said he would leave it to the law.
He explained that the action taken by those who quit Bersatu Sabah was closely related to GRS' decision to join the unity government.
"Bersatu and Perikatan Nasional did not agree with the unity government so there is no understanding there.
"On the GRS side, we took into account the results of the general election and the order of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and most importantly, Sabah's interests."
In a separate statement, GRS secretary-general Datuk Masidi Manjun said the coalition and its four MPs were aware of the anti-hopping law that came into effect on Oct 5.
"They will inform the speaker of Parliament, if there is a need, regarding their position and will issue a statement accordingly.
"We are sure they will not be affected by the law."
The anti-hopping law aims to discourage lawmakers from switching political parties.