The current class of Members of Parliament was sworn in on 16 July 2018

The Malaysian Constitution provides that Parliament would automatically dissolve five years from the day MPs were sworn in (and not five years from polling day 9 May 2018), which means the 14th Malaysian Parliament will expire on 15 July 2023, exactly a year from now.

As the countdown starts, all political actors should move fast and use this one-year period to work on setting democratic rules. These rules should stay regardless of who is in power. We need to think “system” and not “personality”.

Ignore the repeated calls by the Court Cluster to have an early snap election.

We need to be clear of the end goal. We want to make sure that the nation doesn’t return to a one-party or one-man rule as was the case for the first 61 years of our nationhood.

In GE15, no party is likely to win enough seats to dominate the Parliament. Not even UMNO-Barisan Nasional.

Therefore, all parties should come together and work out fair rules to ensure a level playing field for all.

Anti-party hopping law is one of them but we must not stop there.

Restoring people’s trust in government and ensuring stability of the nation depend on strong checks and balances, bipartisanship and just laws, not fear and absolute power.

Malaysians defeated the old political order in 2018.

It’s time to build a long lasting new political order for the decades to come.