Monday, February 2, 2009

Is party hopping so bad like crime? Situation and facts

With the recent crossover of an Umno state assemblyman from Perak to PKR, there many reports, statements and view of his actions in condemnation, welcoming, encouragement, immoral and so on.

Most of us also viewed that party hopping is not good for the person himself in moral grounds and loyalty, but not the party itself. Did we actually overlooked the fault at the party from the beginning?

Now, let us all view the insights of party hopping and why did it happened in the first place and what was the factor behind it, the person or the party?

We begin with when an opposition party MP or state assemblyman decides to cross over to a BN component party, the BN leaders will applaud it and welcome it as a positive move, with praise of high ethics and moral of the person who did that. And the person who jumped over to the BN is also hailed as a hero of what? We do not know what hero!

But when a BN MP or state assemblyman decides to crossover to an opposition party instead, the BN is quick to label such move as immoral, betrayal to the people, the party and the person is problematic and so on. The person who walks over to the opposition is often branded as an attitude problem and that the BN has got no problems at all.

A same situation also applies like this, when an opposition MP or state assemblyman crosses over to the BN, the person is deemed to be clean and he or she need not to be investigated for any possible corrupt practice being taken place.

But when a BN MP or state assemblyman crosses over to the opposition instead, allegations of the person being corrupt and received bribes to walk over will surface and the former ACA and the newly formed Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) are quick to investigate the allegation with grave suspicion of a possible real crime taken place.

From this point of view, is this fair? What we saw here is the entire situation is one-sided. The BN still have the advantages in penalizing the person with pressures from MACC. If some circumstances permit, the BN could also avenge the person’s cross over with harassment or imprisonment from the authorities if they wanted to.

We could see the case here, whichever sides make its move, the BN is sure to come out and seek its advantage to the entire situation, because the mass media and press entirely belongs to them.

Well, we had seen and read many views and comments from the public in regards with the good, the bad and the ugly side of party hopping and we could also see that not much study or analysis were made prior to the presentation of such views.

We all should know that whenever something happens, it must happen with a cause. The root cause to this issue, the root cause to this problem, and the root cause to such happenings or situations.

Let us take a look on what recently happened to Perak’s Bota state assemblyman Datuk Nasarudin Hashim and why did he left Umno for PKR.

In Umno, we could all see factional rivalries, internal bickering, money politics, corruptions, phantom voters and factionalism is rampant in the party with every leader and members of the party are being part of the dirty game from within, and such activities are especially active during the upcoming party elections which is currently ongoing at divisional level and expected to intensify when the elections for the party supreme council approach. Each of every Umno politicians are too busy with their internal party matters until to the fact that they do not even have sufficient time to serve their constituencies and voters.

Even the former Perak Umno liaison chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Tajol Rosli had openly admitted the fact that he could not control the overcrowded infighting in Perak Umno anymore and resigned from his state chairman and division chairman positions.

Therefore, the reason Datuk Nasarudin given for his departure from Umno was very clear. The factional rivalries, internal bickering, money politics, corruptions, phantom voters and factionalism are the reasons. Datuk Nasarudin was not the cause for all these problems but Umno was the cause of all these problems and everyone knows it very well and so do the Umno members.

The situation is very clear, with the factional rivalries, internal bickering, money politics, corruptions, phantom voters and factionalism in Umno continues, Datuk Nasarudin was unable to serve his constituency and voters effectively because of the blockades, politicking and boycotts he experienced from within Umno.

Datuk Nasarudin’s justification for his move into PKR is correct in order to continue serving his constituency and voters without fail, instead of keeping himself busy with Umno’s internal bickering and neglecting his services to the people in the end.

In this case, should anymore shifts of Umno MPs or state assemblymen to the opposition party take place, it should therefore be encouraged and lauded for the mere benefits of the people and should also be viewed as a sacrifice for the sake of the people’s welfare and being.

In the case of party hopping in Sabah and Sarawak politics, they are of completely a different scenario compare with what is happening currently. We could definitely say that most of the moves by politicians over there are immoral, unethical and corrupt at sight.

In these two states, we could see very frequent, on instigation by Umno leaders, the regional based parties often split, with factional fights amongst its leaders which in the end lead to the break ups of the said party and formation of another party one after another, coupled with its leaders and members will start hopping from one party to another due a lots of choice.

In Sabah, the then opposition PBS strength was systematically dismantled (although it survived eventually) into a number of parties like SAPP, PBRS, UPKO, LDP with Umno leading the charge into the state with other peninsular based BN component parties like MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP. It is clear fact that money politics had spread all over this state and spoiled those regional based parties to become subservient to Umno.

During the political transition or crisis, we could see certain politicians had jumped ship for about six to nine times in a year in order to seek a “better political prospect”. Although the situation in Sabah had slow down with Umno already entirely in firm grip in power, Sarawak is still being a target from both Umno and its local proxy Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) to ensure the unity of the Dayak community does not turn into a strong political force to stake its claim on the state chief ministership.

The Dayak based parties which were systematically dismantled by PBB were SNAP, PBDS and now PRS while SPDP and PDS may soon receive the axe as well. The Dayaks were disintegrated from a one political entity and displaced into other ethnic based or mixtures of tribes’ parties like PBB, SUPP, PDS, SPDP so that the community’s political power could be overpowered.

Attempts by several Dayak political leaders to regroup and form a much larger and stronger Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC) has been a failure because of the continuous efforts by both Umno and PBB to block the Dayak’s unity attempt. The Registrar of Societies (ROS) had recently rejected the application from MDC pro-tem committee on grounds of a possible national security threat in Sarawak should the Dayaks were to be reunited gradually. The MDC had since filed an appeal to ROS on the rejection but the later have yet to make any decision pending instruction from the home affairs minister.

As such, we should always view with in depth party hopping in a different manner and circumstances based on the current political situation and the political parties involved with the person in transition. If we see Datuk Nasarudin’s current situation now, it is neither immoral, unethical nor bad, but in the case of Sarawak and Sabah, we can say it does involve a lots of immoral, unethical and bad doers in its field.

No wonder those who are in power are overly powerful now and those who are weak are further weaken with no choice but to become overly subservient to the powerful.

Our disadvantage here is the BN always claim to have the good and the best, the opposition are the bad and the worst or even a threat to the national security. Therefore, BN says ISA is essential in order to control and curb the opposition’s threat.

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