Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
Karpal Singh
KUCHING: Pakatan Rakyat (PR) de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should follow DAP chairman Karpal Singh’s stand when it comes to instigating party hopping among elected representatives in the country.
In stating this, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Supreme Council member Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah agreed with the Bukit Gelugor MP’s (Karpal Singh) stand that party hopping is likened to an act of betrayal for the people who had elected their MPs and assemblymen.
“Party hopping is not encouraged. It reflects one’s ‘insecurity’, inability to work together and does have an impact on one’s credibility. I’m against elected representatives hopping from one party to another and ‘carrying the seat’ along. If a YB wants to jump party, vacate the seat first and let there be a by-election. It’s morally wrong for him to ‘carry along’ the seat as he is voted and given the mandate by virtue of him representing his earlier party.
“Karpal should teach him (Anwar) on this ‘political morality’ as he (Anwar) is the number one advocate of ‘reps pinching and hopping’ and crossover from the backdoor. Since 2008, he’s (Anwar) notorious for that with the latest in Sabah,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Abdul Karim who is also Asajaya assemblyman said while Karpal was promoting loyalty among DAP elected representatives; his team mate from PKR (Anwar) seemed to be advocating the opposite.
Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar also echoed Abdul Karim’s sentiment. Stating that party hopping is against the principle of good democratic practice, he said Anwar’s obsession to take over Putrajaya has led him to abandon the basic principle of virtue and integrity of elected representatives. Their credibility will be thrown into the gutter.
“It confuses the people,..the party’s followers and sympathisers as a whole. The people expect the parties which wish to propagate the alternative party system to settle their basic differences first before thinking of governing the country.
“The bottom line is, a person who encourages party hoppers is encouraging the emergence of unprincipled politicians. Under the circumstances, can we trust unprincipled group of politicians to govern?” he questioned.
Meanwhile, state BN Youth chief Datuk Fadillah Yusof when met at his Hari Raya open house said the opposition had never been consistent in their policies and that the people must realise that the opposition always changed their ‘goal posts’.
He hoped that the people would realise that in order to govern and have a future, the people must have a government that is consistent in policies and committed in realising the policies through systematic initiatives.
Fadillah also urged the young people to analyse what Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had done for the country through his Economic Transformation Programme, Government Transformation Programme, Political Transformation Programme to place Malaysia as a competitive and innovation nation.
He said that there might be certain things that the government had done which was unpopular but it was done for the nation and the future of the country.
“This is the difference between BN and opposition. We are willing to do something which is not popular but something that is very important for the future of our nation and generation,” Fadillah added.