Group slams ‘irresponsible’ MPs who abstained from voting

2026-03-03 - 13:53

Projek Sama founding member Thomas Fann said MPs should prioritise their presence and voting in the Dewan Rakyat when a key bill was being put to a vote. PETALING JAYA: A civil society group has criticised MPs who abstained from voting on the bill to limit the prime minister’s tenure to 10 years as well as those who were a no-show in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, labelling them “irresponsible”. Projek Sama said the parliamentarians had denied the country the benefits of limiting the prime minister’s term, including ensuring less concentration of power to prevent abuses and corruption. “We call upon the constituents represented by these MPs to seriously consider their decisions when going to the polls at the 16th general election,” Projek Sama said in a statement. The Dewan Rakyat failed to pass a constitutional amendment to limit the prime minister’s tenure after the vote fell short of the required two-thirds majority yesterday evening. In the bloc vote, 146 MPs supported the bill, 44 abstained and 32 were absent. It needed at least 148 votes to meet the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment. It was later reported that eight MPs from the government bloc were absent, while all Pakatan Harapan MPs were present and backed the bill. The eight absentees from the government were Hishammuddin Hussein (Sembrong), M Saravanan (Tapah), Larry Sng (Julau), Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal (Bukit Gantang), Henry Sum Agong (Lawas), Suhaimi Nasir (Libaran), Riduan Rubin (Tenom) and former Sabah deputy chief minister Jeffrey Kitingan (Keningau). Syed Hussin later told FMT he decided to skip the vote because he disagreed with the proposed law as he wanted “Anwar Ibrahim to remain as prime minister for as long as possible”. Commenting on Syed Hussin’s reasoning, Projek Sama said if he genuinely opposed the bill on principle because he wanted Anwar to stay on as prime minister, he should have voted against it and “not cowardly play truant”. When contacted, Projek Sama founding member Thomas Fann said that MPs should prioritise their presence and voting in the Dewan Rakyat when a key bill was being put to a vote. “Tapah (Saravanan) and Julau (Sng) prioritised their private engagements – whether prayer or other personal concerns – (over) the constitutional amendment bill, (and) they failed their mandate.” He was responding to the reasons given by Saravanan and Sng for their no-show. Saravanan said he was away attending prayers, while Sng said he could not make it back in time for the vote as he was stuck in traffic. Projek Sama also urged Putrajaya to re-table the term limit bill in the next parliamentary session. However, the re-tabling should be accompanied by a public campaign to engage public opinion through vigorous debates and deliberations. “Without public support, the merits of this impactful reform can be easily dismissed for partisan and political gains,” added the group.