For once, I agree with Karpal's effort to table the anti-hopping bill in parliament.
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| Karpal Singh |
To me as the rakyat, I understand that political parties have different views on things (sometimes on EVERYTHING) and this will translate into policies should they be given the mandate to rule the country. So, they go around spreading their views and plans to convince the people to give them the mandate.
For BN, who is the existing ruling and the only party who have been ruling the country since independence, they rely on their promises kept. They go around telling people that they mean what they say and have not make any big u-turns after any elections. They ask the people to look at their report card and continue to given them the mandate to rule.
For PR, who saw a positive swing in their favor in the last General Election (GE12), they rely on their plans for the future. They have never rule the country, so it is quite difficult for them to show any track record as a ruling party. But they now have at least 1-term report card for those states they currently control. They are going around telling people they can do better than BN and will be able to bring Malaysia to a greater height.
Of course, that is the ideal political scenario.
But in reality, besides the facts and the figures, some politicians will often resort to slandering, personal attack, threatening, deceiving and bribing in order to gain control. The people's sentiment are often taken for a roller coaster ride, which is a typical atmosphere nearing to GE with both sides of the political divide trying to woe the people.
Now, coming back to the anti-hopping bill and why I support that.
I just described above a typical atmosphere nearing to GE, which normally happens once in every 4 years. And once the people have given the mandate to the party of their choice, the political campaign should stop and everyone should focus on the nation's progress.
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| Once election is over, political parties should stop campaigning |
But is this happening? No, because Article 10 and 48 of the Federal Constitution allows the elected representative to hop from one party to another. And this hopping sometimes changes entirely the mandate that was given by the people during the poll. I see this Articles as a sweetener to the political parties because they do not have to put any effort to convince the people as they would have to during any election. All they need to do is to convince enough elected representative to hop to their side and change the political power. Simple!
Is this tactic legal? Yes it is, because Article 10 & 48 allows this.
It this ethical? Absolutely not. The power should remain with the people to elect the party of their choice.
And because of this, the people are always bombarded with none stop political campaign because political parties continuously looking for opportunities to make use of this Article to gain control of the country. In 2008 for example, after GE12, Anwar Ibrahim as the opposition leader has openly declared that they have enough elected representatives, who has given him their commitment to hop to his side and automatically giving his party the mandate to topple the BN government. That captured world wide attention and he continuously gave 16 Sept 2008 as the 'big day'. Although Anwar's 'big day' passes by without any change of government, but it left the people with a realization that their mandate can be made worthless when political parties uses this Article 10 & 48 in the Federal Constitution to entice elected representative to hop.
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| Anwar Ibrahim said in 2008 "We have the numbers" |
And the people are left to wonder, when are these two political sides going to declare a seize fire between them and start building the nation. They can start campaigning again after 4 years, not a problem, but once mandate is given by the people, everyone should respect that and work as one nation.
So, that's why I support the anti-hopping bill.
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