KOTA KINABALU – The opposition bloc would still be unable to defeat the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 amendment even with the votes of the seven MPs from Warisan, said the party’s deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking.
He said the total bloc vote opposing the amendments would only come to 92 if the Warisan lawmakers were present and the numbers would still not be enough to beat the 105 votes from the ruling bloc.
Leiking said passing of the Sosma motion in Parliament yesterday was not due to the absence of lawmakers, but more to do with how the opposition organised the opposition MPs.
“Just to recap, this is the second time the motion was tabled in Parliament. We (the opposition) had 86 votes and the ruling MPs only had 85.
“Although it was a last-minute vote and there were only four Warisan MPs at the time, it was the four votes from the Warisan MPs which helped defeat the vote.
“So I am asking now, to do your maths even with the vote from the six MPs from Warisan yesterday, would the opposition bloc be able to defeat the motion?” he asked reporters when met at the Warisan headquarters in Inanam, today.
Yesterday, Parliament passed a motion to extend Section 4(5) of the Sosma Act, which grants police the power to detain individuals for up to 28 days for another five years.
Later, PKR’s Subang MP Wong Chen went on to identify, among others, Warisan MPs as those being notably missing during the vote.
Leiking said both Warisan president and Semporna MP Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal and himself could not be in Parliament as there were more urgent matters they had to attend to in the Sabah Legislative Assembly sitting, which ended today.
Meanwhile, Leiking said Papar MP Ahmad Hassan stayed in Sabah due to some urgent personal matters, while the remaining Warisan MPs, Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis (Kota Belud), Datuk Azis Jamman (Sepanggar), Datuk Rozman Isli (Labuan) and Ma’mun Sulaiman (Kalabakan) could not be present during the motion because of prior engagements.
While congratulating Wong for his appointment as a PKR supreme council member, Leiking advised him not to play politics, saying Warisan in principle is against the Sosma extension.
However, he said Wong should question opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who Leiking said had claimed to have “strong and formidable numbers.”
Stressing that Warisan is not a component of Pakatan Harapan (PH), Leiking said the failure to defeat the motion had nothing to do with Warisan, but the failure of the opposition bloc to get themselves organised.
Meanwhile, Shafie said Warisan should not be made the scapegoat for the opposition’s failure to defeat the motion, saying PH should check on the absence of their own lawmakers first.
Shafie also named PKR’s Tawau MP Datuk Christina Liew as one of those absent and revealed that PH should look into itself first before calling out others.
“You can’t be blaming Warisan for all of this. When you fail to defeat a bill, you blame Warisan, when your own lawmakers are absent, you still blame Warisan.
“Why should you be checking on us?” asked Shafie in reference to Warisan not being part of PH. – The Vibes, July 21, 2022
Additional reporting by Rebecca Chong
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