DID ANWAR BRIBE REPS TO DEFECT?

GERAKAN has challenged Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to clarify his position on the defection of elected representatives to rival parties.

Up to now Lim has not made a stand on whether he approves of such defections, which are described by state Gerakan human rights and legal bureau chief Baljit Singh as "morally wrong".

A government, Baljit explained, must be chosen by the people through the election of their representatives and therefore, those who plan to seize power through defections should be condemned.

He said Lim had remained silent when PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim announced that many BN parliamentarians would be crossing over to Pakatan Rakyat on Sept 16 two years ago.

Baljit praised only one opposition leader - DAP national chairman Karpal Singh - for having the guts to speak out against defections and Anwar's Sept 16 plan.

"How much did Anwar offer these representatives to cross over? Why is Lim silent about this?" Baljit asked at a press conference yesterday.

"Or is Lim thinking of the possibility that his father, Kit Siang, could be the first non-Malay deputy prime minister if Pakatan manages to take over the federal government?"

Baljit was accompanied at the press conference by state political training and education chief Rowena Yam, publicity, information and communications bureau chief Dr Thor Teong Ghee and state Gerakan Youth vice-chief Dr Lim Boon Han.

He was responding to a recent news report quoting Lim as saying that he could not understand why the federal government would not enact legislation to prevent party-hopping of elected representatives.

Lim had also reportedly said that he did not think the BN would do it as it needed to buy such representatives to cross over.

Following the resignation of two BN Sabah MPs, the ruling coalition labeled them as 'frogs', to which Lim had supposedly replied in the media that "I don't understand (the criticism), BN has been encouraging this culture."

Last week, Lim, who is DAP secretary-general, rubbished the newly-established Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah as a sham.

He described the RCI as an attempt to hide the "loss of confidence" in Sabah BN following the defection this month of a deputy minister, a parliamentarian and a senator, who said they were disillusioned with the ruling coalition.

According to Baljit, anyone who defected, whether from the BN or Pakatan, is a "political frog".

The federal government alone, he added, could not ensure that a law against defections could be passed as both sides of the political divide would need to back it in Parliament.

In December last year, a Gerakan team led by Baljit proposed to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform that elected seats be automatically declared vacant if the representative quits his or her party.

The proposal, Baljit had said, was to ensure that there would be no political coup after an election and that a by-election should be held to determine the new representative for the constituency.

In 2009, three Pakatan assemblypersons in Perak quit their parties and declared themselves BN-friendly, which eventually led to the BN seizing power from the PAS-led Pakatan administration. (Malaysian Digest)