DANGEROUS BETRAYAL OF TRUST – KARPAL’S SON SLAMS DR M & BERSATU’S GRAB FOR UMNO MPs: ‘THESE UMNO MPs WERE PART OF A SYSTEM PAKATAN VOWED TO CHANGE’ – INDEED, WHITHER REFORMS NOW?

ACCEPTING elected representatives from Umno into Pakatan Harapan goes against the government’s commitment to reform, DAP’s Ramkarpal Singh said today amid talk that more leaders from the defeated Malay party could join PH.

PH does not need these representatives, the Bukit Gelugor MP said, as it would cause the public to lose confidence in the coalition, which wrested power from Barisan Nasional for the first time in the country’s history.

“The more PH entertains these crossovers, the more disillusioned the rakyat will become with PH. 

“It is a dangerous development and completely against the will of the people who voted out BN in GE14.  

“To accept them into Pakatan Harapan now would be a betrayal of the rakyat who wanted a real change, not merely a cosmetic one where many old faces are a part of the new government,” Ramkarpal said in a statement.

Umno lost five more MPs yesterday when its parliamentarians from Sabah quit Barisan Nasional and declared themselves independents. This brings Umno’s tally of parliamentary seats nationwide down to 43, from 54 it won in GE14.

Ramkarpal said the issue at stake was how any crossover to PH would reflect on the government’s commitment to reform and change.

“These Umno MPs were a part of a system that PH has committed to change. In order to do so, we have to first clear the decks and allowing them into PH would be the complete opposite of this.

“The reason given by these representatives for their departure i.e. that Umno today lacks direction is laughable as just as recent as eight months ago, Umno, to them, was their one and only direction.”

Ramkarpal added that the change and reform the PH government was undertaking should not be limited to charging former BN leaders with corruption but to dismantle policies and corruption that had become rampant under its rule.

THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT