LETTER | Nurul Izzah Anwar has demonstrated to every Malaysian the principles for which every politician should be judged post-May 9.

This following the recent furore over all those state assemblypersons and members of Parliament who prior to May 9 was part of the ruling government then but have now resigned and are running down their previous parties while pledging allegiance to the current government.

These same people, while in power prior to May 9, had been claiming and exhorting the people not to vote for the current government for if they came to power, the country will go bankrupt etc.

To these unprincipled politicians, you were elected not because of your personal personality or character. You did not represent yourself with your own platform. You represented the party which you were in prior to May 9 and its platform.

The constituents who voted for you believed that the party which you previously were in had the best platform for them to channel their views and aspirations to the government of the day. You, the individual, were merely the conduit through which the constituents “posted” their views and aspirations to your party.

The excuse that you are resigning from the party at the request of your constituents and that you are adhering to their wishes merely shows the immorality of your soul. Human beings who were orphaned and left without any parental guidance from the day they were born to show and have better moral guidance than each of you.

If you do have any moral responsibility left in your soul, please resign from your post as assemblyperson or member of Parliament. As you are no longer a member of the party that you were in prior to May 9, you have no legitimate and moral right to represent the constituents that voted for the party that you claimed to represent previously.

The same constituents did not vote for the current government as they believed that voting for the current government would spell doom and bring the country down as portrayed by the party that you represented previously.

These constituents did not vote for your previous party to represent them based on the policies and manifestos of the opposing parties at the election then. If the constituents were to believe in the policies and manifestos of the current government, they would have voted for your opponents during the election instead of voting for your party.

I am not convinced with the argument that the new government needs a two-thirds majority to ensure proposed reforms are approved by Parliament.

I am convinced that if the reforms proposed are neutral and do not just benefit the ruling government, the current opposition would support the reforms for it would benefit them, too, if they ever returned to be the government of the day.

Yes, in a democracy, it is the right of the individuals to switch parties and we cannot curtail their rights. Even in mature democracies, switching happens. But in those mature democracies, it is the party that switches allegiance. The individuals merely represent the platform and the parties which they are in.

The people, however, take comfort in the fact that with just a tick of a paper in front of them, they can send these same people back to the opposing side from which they are originally from if they are accepted by parties in the current ruling government and are fielded as candidates again in the next election.

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