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Thank you Tun, but what about those who've already crossed over?
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LETTER | We refer to the Malaysiakini report Mahathir wants an end to Harapan taking in defectors.

We are very heartened to hear that our Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has given the assurance that BN members who want to defect to Pakatan Harapan will not be accepted as registered members of parties in the coalition.

We certainly do not want Harapan to become BN 2.0. We want to see a complete overhaul of the political culture and be rid of BN’s culture of patronage, threat and corruption.

But we are aware that up to this point, many BN, and in particular, Umno members have crossed over to join Bersatu including elected state assemblypersons. We would like to humbly suggest the following:

1. In keeping with Mahathir’s assurance, revoke the membership of such defectors and have a moratorium on the acceptance of such application for membership for two years.

2. For elected representatives who have already defected, they can remain as independents friendly to Harapan and have a supply and confidence agreement with Harapan when it comes to voting in the assemblies/Parliament.

3. At the end of this term, if these candidates still want to be part of Harapan, it would be up to the Harapan parties to decide if they want to field them as candidates then.

4. Harapan should consider enacting or amend laws to prevent such defections as it is a betrayal of the majority of voters in their constituencies who voted for the parties of these defectors.

We want to highlight the situation in Johor, where three BN/Umno elected state assemblypersons defected to Bersatu on May 12 just three days after Harapan’s victory.

These are opportunistic politicians who did not consider the wishes of the voters who voted for BN on May 9 but only considered their own interests. Bersatu must reject their membership and if they want to, remain as Harapan-friendly or return to BN/Umno.

The names of the three who defected are:

  • Alwiyah Talib (BN) (N32 Endau)
  • Rasman Bin Ithnain (BN) (N36 Sedili)
  • Hj Rosleli Bin Jahari (BN) (N37 Johor Lama)

We also wish to caution the appointment of people who were or are still members of BN/Umno to key government positions as the loyalty of these individuals to Harapan would be questionable.

One such example is the new menteri besar of Johor Osman Sapian’s appointment of former Kota Tinggi district council president Fizwan Rashidi to the very influential position as his private secretary.

It was alleged that Fizwan is still an Umno member or has close ties to Umno. The Harapan government should consider tapping the many new talents from within the newly elected assemblypersons/MPs and members of civil society.

The determination of the rakyat on May 9 to remove a regime that has entrenched itself for 61 years cannot be taken lightly. The rakyat wants a fresh start with the new Harapan government and will not accept any contamination from the same BN government they voted out.

Again, we thank Mahathir for listening to the concerns of the rakyat and for respecting our wishes. We want to see the new Pakatan Harapan succeed in making Malaysia great again.


The writer is chairperson of pro-reform NGO, Engage.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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