Anti Hopping Law Is Just A Distraction From Other Real Problems In The Country. It Will Also Not Help The Voters.

 

Bottomline is MPs or Members of Parliament (or ADUNs at the States) are called lawmakers. They raise their hands in Parliament to vote for or against bills, motions and resolutions in Parliament. This is the overall responsibility they have - to pass laws in Parliament.

Someone said the proposed anti hopping law will stop the frequent change of Government. This is not correct. Ok the anti hopping law says the Member of Parliament cannot jump from one party to another. But what is there to stop an MP (ok-lah lets say an Umno MP) from voting against his own party president?

If there is a vote of no confidence against Ismail Sabri do you think all UMNO MPs will vote for him?

If there is a motion to vote for Zahid Hamidi to be made prime minister do you think all Umno MPs will vote for him?

If there is a motion to vote for Anwar Ibrahim to be made prime minister do you think all PKR MPs will vote for him?

If you vote against your own party's Prime Minister or if you vote against your own party president in Parliament  isnt that as good as jumping from the party? The effect is the same.

Why? Why? Why?

Because of the voters. The voters voted for you the MP because of your party ideology, your party platform, because of the capacity and integrity of your party leaders etc. That is what you promised the voters. Now  if you vote against  your own prime minister or against your own party president you have actually betrayed your voters.

So how will the anti hopping law handle that? Will there be a special clause in the anti hopping law which will say 'All Members of Parliament cannot vote against their own party or against their own prime minister in Parliament'? What type of a stupid anti hopping law will that be?

But if you dont have such a stupid clause then what is the purpose of the anti hopping law when an UMNO MP can vote against Ismail Sabri  or vote against Zahid Hamidi in Parliament?

And what happens if Umno takes disciplinary action and  then kicks out the recalcitrant MP from the Umno party?  Does his Parliamentary seat become void and will there be a by election?  

What if the recalcitrant MP takes the case to Court? The Umno  MP can always accuse Ismail Sabri or Zahid Hamidi of having betrayed the party ideology or the party platforms instead. 

He can take the case to the High Court, if he loses he can appeal to the Appeals Court. If he loses again he can appeal to the Federal Court. And if the General Elections are approaching he can change his lawyers at least three times - to delay the Court case. 

He can hire and fire a mamak lawyer, try to  fly in a Mat Salleh lawyer and then opt for a Muslim-convert "indeterminate bumiputra status"  local lawyer and then ask for the case to be postponed. They say there are about 20,000 lawyers in the country. How many times can you change lawyers? How many times can you ask to delay the case?

I digress. So if Umno kicks out an MP from the party for disciplinary reasons then what happens? That is not party jumping. Or say the recalcitrant MP wins the Court case and CANNOT BE KICKED OUT FROM UMNO. Then what? He still voted against Ismail Sabri (as prime minister) or against Zahid Hamidi (as party president).

My point is the anti hopping law will not work.  It does not serve the interests of the VOTERS. The anti hopping law is designed to ensure the political survival of the politicians and the political parties, especially in the present circumstances in Malaysia where no single political party has a majority in Parliament.

And what happens if the entire party "jumps" ? What happens if ALL the MPs in the party "jump"?

Here is an example. Say before the General Elecions the Pas fellows went around campaigning and convincing the voters that Umno / BN are  corrupted, corrupted, corrupted. The UMNO/BN fellows went around campaigning the Pas are psycho fanatics.

So both Pas and Umno went out campaigning and convinced their respective voters. Pas convinced the Umno hating voters to vote for Pas. Umno convinced the Pas hating voters to vote for Umno. And then suddenly after the General Elections both Umno and Pas could not win a majority in Parliament. So both Umno and Pas signed an agreement to form a new coalition. They have just betrayed their voters. They just went against all the bad things they said against each other to convince their voters to vote for them.  Isnt this worse than  party hopping?  

How does the proposed anti hopping law handle this situation? How does the anti hopping law protect the voters? It does not.

WHY? WHY? WHY?  Because the anti hopping law is designed to protect the survival of the politicians.  No one seems to care if the voters have been betrayed.  What about the rights of the voters? Who cares?

Unless there is a special clause in the anti hopping law which says political parties cannot form coalition governments AFTER THE RESULTS OF THE GENERAL ELECTIONS. ALL POLITICAL COALITIONS MUST BE CLEARLY MADE KNOWN TO THE PUBLIC BEFORE THE GENERAL ELECTIONS.

Let me assure you folks, let me assure you Tuan-Tuan the proposed anti-hopping law will say no such thing.

WHY? Because the anti hopping law is to safeguard the survival of the politicians. It will not safeguard your rights and your choices as the VOTER. As a Voter you can go and jump in the Straits of Melaka or in the South China Sea.

And what exactly do they mean by jumping? What about independent MPs? For example now we have Gerak Independent. Gerak Independent already has four or five candidates who are running in the next General Elections. They do not belong to any party but all of them share a common platform. What happens if an Indepedent MP (any indepndent MP)  decides to join a political party AFTER he has won the Parliamentary seat?   Is that considered party hopping or not ? How does the anti-hopping law handle that? 

Dont forget the VOTERS. What about the promises you made to the VOTERS? An independent candidate may tell the voters that all the political parties are corrupted and useless. And the majority voters believed him and that is why they voted for him. Then after he has won the Parliamentary seat he went ahead and joined one of those political parties. Ok maybe he does NOT join them but he signs a Memorandum of Understanding with one of them. It is the same thing. He has betrayed the voters. So how does the anti hopping law handle this situation?

Using the same logic, lets say a DAP MP resigns from the DAP and decides to become an Independent MP. How does the anti hopping law handle this situation? He does NOT join another party so it is NOT party hopping. He just decides to become an Independent MP. So what happens to all the promises he made to the voters about the DAP ? The voters trusted him because he represented the ideals and the platforms of the DAP.  How does the anti-hopping law handle this situation?

Last November 2021 the Melaka State government collapsed because some ADUNs quit from the ruling party. Then lo and behold Anwar Ibrahim announced that his coalition was willing to accept at least two of the "jumping frogs" as his own candidate in the Melaka State polls.  

Anwar made the really lame excuse that accepting the two ex-Umno fellows was not "party hopping" because by that time the State Assembly had already been dissolved!!  Those two fellows (plus others) "jumping" had immediately triggered the State Government's collapse. So of course the State Assembly was dissolved.  Everyone knew that already. This is the same Anwar Ibrahim who is now leading the charge for the anti-hopping law.

As I said folks, this anti hopping law is designed to ensure the survival of the politicians. It does not give a hoot about the VOTERS.

Finally lets talk about that MoU between the PH and UMNO/BN.

Last September 2021 the PH and UMNO/BN signed a Memorandum of Understanding or MoU. The MoU was signed urgently so that the 2022 Budget which was tabled in Parliament in October 2022 would be passed. (In principle I support the MoU because it helps in our inter-racial trust building between UMNO and DAP. It proves that the ketuanan Malays and the DAP can work together).  But how will the anti hopping law handle this situation? What about the voters?

You see before the General Elections  the PH went about campaigning to its voters  that UMNO / BN is corrupted, corrupted, corrupted. How is UMNO / BN corrupted? Well they steal public funds. Where are the public funds? The public  funds that are allocated under the annual Budget presented every October in  Parliament.  And sure enough,  last October 2021, after signing the MoU with Umno/BN the PH voted in Parliament  to approve UMNO/BN's Budget.  

Then almost the very next day they went back to calling UMNO/BN 'corrupted, corrupted, corrupted'.  What kind of auta behaviour is this? Then why did you help UMNO/BN get their Budget approved?

What about all those campaign speeches and campaign promises that was made to the Voters? You told the voters UMNO/BN is corrupted, corrupted, corrupted. That UMNO/BN is stealing from the Annual Budget. Then you went ahead and voted for Umno/BN to approve their Budget proposal in Parliament.

And in just over a month from now in September 2022 the PH will renew the MoU with UMNO/BN to again approve Budget 2023 in Parliament this October. Then after that you can shout and scream for another year "They are stealing from our annual Budget, they are stealing from public funds". The same thing all over again.

So where are the Voters interests? What will the anti-hopping law say? Anti hopping law or no anti hopping law  the political parties will find easy  loopholes to ensure their own political survival.

This brouhaha over the anti hopping law seems to be a distraction. A deflection from more serious issues that are affecting our country. Serious problems which the politicians obviously do not know how to handle. 

The weak Ringgit (RM4.45 to US$1.00). The high unemployment levels (especially among the Malays), the acute labour shortage in the plantations, factories and services that is causing tens of billion Ringgit losses for the economy, the huge government debt and now the government cancelling all development projects for the rest of 2022, the structural disasters in the economy like the bumiputera monopolies in rice imports, flour imports, motor vehicle APs and so many other imports, the bumiputera monopolies in infrastructure like communications, water, waste, transportation and banking which have crippled the economy (and hence creating all the problems that we are facing today). These are the real problems in the economy and the politicians do not know how to unwind these terminal cancers.  Instead they are whooping and dancing around the fire like heathens, hoping that there will be enough simple folk who will be distracted by their feathers and loin cloths. 

p.s. What is my suggestion? My suggestion is simple and I believe far more effective. We do not need any anti-hopping laws. We do not even need to restrict the prime minister to two terms. Instead we restrict ALL MPs and ALL ADUNs to two terms only.  Both in Parliament and in the State legislatures. This will automatically restrict ALL Menteri Besar, Chief Ministers, State Excos, Federal Ministers, Prime Ministers to a maximum of two terms. 

And what is the point of party hopping when you only have two terms? Or less?

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.