Jumping mad over party hoppers
FOR better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health till death do us part – this was a promise I made to my wife when we were married. How would she have felt if I had left her within a year of our marriage due to a serious calamity? Would she have agreed to the marriage if she had known this would happen?
Ever since GE14, a number of parties have left their coalition or are planning to, while elected representatives from a certain party are leaving in droves. It is interesting to note that those leaving are all from the opposition. Did the problems they suddenly noticed today not exist before the general election? Did they not see the issues then and choose not to believe there were problems or did they decide to ignore the scandals as long as they were governing?
Except in rare circumstances, elected representatives were chosen based on their parties. How else would first-time lawmakers with no service record to speak of be elected? Or how many independent lawmakers did we have the week after GE14? If they were elected to represent a party or coalition, is it not a betrayal to the voters if they decided to leave?
Some of our ministers today have served prison time. A number of elected representatives have suits pending in court, while others were sacked from their party because they were not afraid to speak up. We do not want fair weather politicians who abandon their struggle at the first sign of trouble. That includes having a strong opposition to check the Government. Is this not how we all know about 1MDB?
On the other hand, it is also puzzling why certain parties in the ruling coalition are willing to accept the party hoppers. Have they forgotten the debacle in Perak in 2009? Are they so short of talent that they are willing to compromise on their party’s struggle? Are they confident that those they accepted would not leave in the next election?
Hence, this is a plea to all elected representatives. Have a spine! Those who won should work hard to make Malaysia prosper and competitive again. The opposition’s role is to check the government so that we do not have another scandal like 1MDB. Let’s all stop the party-hopping charade. ANTI-PARTY HOPPER Penang