KUCHING: Former parliamentary opposition leader, Lim Kit Siang, is the first Member of Parliament (MP) to ever introduce an anti-defection Private Member’s Bill in Parliament way back in 1978 “to ensure political integrity of elected MPs and to prevent political corruption”.
“But it did not receive any support from the floor and the ruling government at the time,” said Lim in Parliament that year.
Would he now coax the current parliament in which he has considerable clout to finally enact an anti-hopping law?
Sometimes voters show their displeasure via the ballot box, but party hoppers are usually very popular in their own areas and their loyalty tends to be personal to holder, that is, the loyalty is not to the party. Thus the hopper can still win in subsequent elections regardless of his/her party affiliation.
Political thinkers and analysts have agreed that there is a need for an effective anti-defection law. But this requires a 2/3rd majority in Parliament because the Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that crossing over to another political party was an expression of the person’s right to engage in freedom of association.
However, today’s voters are simply fed up and disgusted with the political goings on of late. Elected representatives in Parliament and state legislatures have been jumping ship mostly to the newly formed Harapan government and some are even happening within coalitions as seen lately in Sabah and most recently in Sarawak.
Some practicing politicians were asked today about the correct or most generally accepted way forward with regards to the matter.
A respondent who was a former party candidate in the 2011 state election and current branch chairman of SUPP Stakan, Sim Kiang Chiok, said he was very aware of the judicial stand on the matter and agreed with the general idea of protecting the freedom of association which is enshrined in the constitution.
However, Sim, who is currently a member of the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC) which is the decision making caucus of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), also felt that there is a need for some kind of law specific to politics that will stop party-hopping for the sake of having a two-party system in the country.
He said, “I doubt that Lim Kit Siang will be able to introduce the bill again because we can see that his Harapan coalition are accepting former Umno members into their folds quite readily, thus undermining the two-party system that they ironically championed all this while.
“With Tun Dr Mahatir at the helm they are promoting a strong-handed leadership reminiscent of the 1980s. With the momentum that they have, they might get the coveted 2/3 majority just by taking in defectors from the opposition.
“My suggestion to Harapan is if they do get the 2/3 majority in Parliament, senior Lim should re-introduce his 1978 bill and put an end to party hoping once and for all so that Malaysia can rely on the fact that their representatives will have to honour promises made during their election campaigns and not simply jump parties for personal gain and preservation.”
Sim was of the opinion that when a politician is elected on a party ticket he/she is tied to the manifesto and principles, and only if the party itself had reneged on its manifesto and principles should the representative leave, but only to pursue the original manifesto and principles.
He believed that an elected representative should not be allowed to simply leave his/her party to pursue personal ambitions and political preservation.
“In such a case the representative should be forced to let go his/her seat and allow the electorate to decide in a by-election,” he said.
Another politician, Christopher Gira, who is a sitting state legislator and a member of Party Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) supreme council, feels strongly that the need for an anti-hopping law is now more urgent than before because elected representatives don’t seem to respect the people’s decisions.
He pointed out that legislators were elected based on the performance of their parties, the results the party had achieved, and how much they trust the party leaders when accessing candidates in their respective areas.
“How else would a candidate get support especially when they are new, if not for the campaigns done by the party to assure the electorate that the candidate had the same DNA as the leaders and the party as a whole,” argued Gira.
“Prior to elections there are always a few proposed candidates for any given seat. It is the might and unity of a political party that consolidated the votes for that one candidate that is finally chosen, so when elected representatives leave they should vacate their seats or the seats can be deemed vacant automatically by law.”
In this way, freedom of association will stand unmolested as the persons concerned will be able to join whichever party they please, or they can even become independent candidates to regain their seats. That’s democracy, said Gira.
The general consensus among most politicians on both sides of the isle is that freedom of association should only apply to the persons concerned, and that the perks and platforms attained whilst in the association of a political party do not identify with the persons but rather the political parties they were associated with.
All agree that a law should be enacted but none see the possibility of it happening in a Harapan-led government simply because they don’t command the magical 2/3s majority yet and also because their current chief executive is actively recruiting from the opposition to consolidate his position. A law like this will be contradictory to his mission and will only possibly happen after he has achieved the magical number in Parliament.
