LETTER | Recently, Sabah’s Sukau state assemblyperson Saddi Abdul Rahman (photo) announced that he has joined Parti Warisan Sabah. He was previously an Umno member before quitting on Aug 1.

For me, it sounds wrong to label him as an Independent as he was not truly independent from any political parties. This "jumping ship" is nothing new in Sabah, and in fact, most of the Sabahans are used to it.

In 1994 Sabah state election, it was won by Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) which, at that time, was not a component party of BN - winning 25 state seats against 23 obtained by the federal government's ruling BN coalition.

However, after the election, PBS was ousted and BN came to power and formed the Sabah state government because of the defection of elected PBS assemblypersons via the formation of new parties aligned to BN.

After the May 5 general election in 2013, Sabah’s Luyang assemblyperson Hiew King Cheu (as then he was) and Kadamaian assemblyperson Jeremy Malajad @ Malazad (as then he was) quit their respective parties, DAP and PKR, and became BN-friendly and Independent assemblyperson. How can one be independent and at the same time BN-friendly? Hiew subsequently joined MCA.

Well, there are countless incidents of party-hopping, and I could not recall all of them.

The so-called "political frogs" always gave absurd excuses such as it is for the interest of the people in their constituency in order to justify their act of party-hopping. Do the voters in their constituency implore them to party-hop?

In my opinion, I do not think so. The party-hopping is done solely for their own benefit and interest.

Freedom of choice

Most of the voters voted based on the candidate’s party. The elected MPs and state assemblypersons are given the mandate because they came from a particular party. It is analogous to a social contract where the voters voted for the candidates because they preferred the specifications and backgrounds of the particular candidates. It is like buying a product.

It is unjustifiable for the specification of the "product" to be altered in the midst of the contract period (five years) without the approval and permission of the voters. This completely goes against the intention and will of the people. This is a deprivation of the people’s freedom of choice.

I hope the federal and state government can table an anti-hopping law to prevent such unethical act by the elected representatives. As a matter of fact, the Sabah State Legislative Assembly had once enacted an anti-hopping law but was subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Federal Court because it was against the freedom of association.

Hence, in order to pass the anti-hopping law, a two-thirds majority is required for the constitution to be amended to add an exception to the freedom of association. 

However, the prime minister has ruled out the possibility of introducing anti-hopping law as he said the federal government believes in democracy and democracy allows frogs to jump.

It is pathetic to see how the government sugar-coated party-hopping in the name of democracy. For now, it all depends on the elected people representatives' own ethics and morality.

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