Party hopping needs to be outlawed, says DAP’s Ramkarpal again

 

Ramkarpal Singh and Charles Santiago said checks and balances were needed in a democracy to prevent party hopping.

PETALING JAYA: DAP’s Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh today again called for party hopping to be outlawed.

This follows the latest series of party hopping by Pakatan Harapan representatives.

Ramkarpal said party hopping was “an anathema to any democracy as it can destabilise any government”, such as Perikatan Nasional.

“Regardless of whether they switched within PH or moved to PN, it makes no difference.

“An amusing argument was raised when justifying party hopping in this instance — that government funds are needed to serve the constituency and such funds are not available if one is in the opposition.”

Ramkarpal said this argument was “laughable”.

Yesterday three former Amanah assemblymen — Khairuddin A Rahim (Senggarang), Faizul Amri Adnan (Serom) and Muhamad Said Jonit (Mahkota) — joined PKR.

Meanwhile, Julau MP Larry Sng and Tebrau MP Steven Choong quit PKR and pledged their support for PN.

Sng, who won as an independent in the last general election before moving to PKR, said he had been unable to serve his constituents properly as they lacked much-needed development funds.

Ramkarpal called on the next government that comes to power to table constitutional amendments to stop party hopping.

“If we don’t do this, we will never hear the end of people like Larry Sng and Steven Choong and those of their ilk.”

Meanwhile, fellow Klang MP Charles Santiago called for a review in the country’s election laws that would make it mandatory for elected representatives to quit both their parties and seats if they switched their allegiance to their parties.

“For the past one year, we have seen both federal and state governments collapse due to crossovers.

“This is not how democracy works. We need proper checks and balances.”

Santiago said the respective parties need to properly scrutinise their candidates before fielding them for an election.

“The voters chose you because of your ideology but you abandon it along the way. It is a sad situation.” - FMT