The adoption of the highly significant motions of limiting the PM’s tenure and anti-hopping law in the current parliamentary session will bring long-term stability and prosperity to the nation.

His Majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah officiated the first sitting of the fifth session of 14^th parliament on Monday. The current 16-day session will run from Feb 28 to March 24.

Among the major agendas of this parliamentary session are the tenure of prime minister, anti-party hopping act, etc. If these agendas can be adopted in the current session, they should have far-fetching effects on the country’s long-term political stability and will effectively stem the vicious party-hopping culture in Malaysian politics.

Without a cap to the prime minister’s tenure, a consequence of long years of rule will be concentration of power and the selection of cabinet members based sheerly on relationships. Without putting the most competent and suitable persons at the right positions, the country’s development will be hitting the wall.

As such, if the prime minister is only allowed to stay in office for two terms or ten years, the ruling party will have to groom young and capable leaders to take over, and this will prevent the country from becoming stagnant.

Adopting the anti-hopping law has been a consensus among ruling and opposition lawmakers as well as the entire citizenry.

Over the past two years, the ship-jumping acts of a handful of irresponsible political frogs have derailed the country’s direction. These rogue politicians have literally “blackmailed” the whole country of 33 million people. And endless political squabbles and disputes have resulted in instability and stagnation.

While delivering the royal address to the Parliament, His Majesty decreed that all elected reps must work together in unity to preserve the political stability.

Indeed, the opposition has signed a transformation and political stability MoU with the government, which if implemented wholeheartedly should help stabilize the political situation and will benefit all Malaysians eventually.

If unfortunately these two motions fail to be adopted by the parliamentarians, the signed MoU will be reduced to just a piece of waste paper. What Malaysians want is a stable government that will do something for the country and not irresponsible politicians who keep creating social and ethnic unrest.

And this will only be possible by way of amending or enacting the relevant acts in the parliament.

His Majesty also pointed out that the government must effectively stabilize goods prices so as not to excessively burden the rakyat.

He welcomed the move to encourage Malaysians to buy local products and support the promotional events in a bid to spearhead economic recovery. These two campaigns will help Malaysian businesses to sell their products and enliven the operation of companies, in turn create more job opportunities for the people.

Due to the chronic devaluation of ringgit against the greenback, prices of imported goods have soared. Additionally, due to global supply chain disruption as a consequence of the pandemic, prices of raw materials, manufactured goods, energy and logistic costs have all gone up, triggering a worldwide inflation from which Malaysia cannot be spared, by virtue of our weak currency.

Imported goods have surged in prices by about 20-30% in recent months, not so much because the merchants are intentionally hiking their prices for profitability but because of a global inflationary trend.

As such, His Majesty urged Malaysians to purchase the relatively more affordable local products and cut down on unnecessary expenses. Such a move will help boost the operation of local manufacturers and revive our ailing economy.

Among the key points of the Agong’s speech were political stability, bipartisan cooperation, containment of the pandemic, stabilizing goods prices, buy Malaysian, and economic recovery. These are also what all the rakyat will look forward to this year.

It is our sincere hope that the adoption of the highly significant motions of limiting the PM’s tenure and anti-hopping law in the current parliamentary session will bring long-term stability and prosperity to the nation.