YOURSAY | By-election honourable option for six Bersatu MPs

YOURSAY | ‘Let voters decide if they want to return the mandate to you.’

DAP, Umno anti-hopping measures at risk if Bersatu gambit fails

Sacking reps will not trigger by-elections but weaken Bersatu in PN, say experts

Kilimanjaro: The effectiveness of the anti-hopping law mainly depends on which party is in power and how the law is "interpreted" and "exploited" as "loopholes" are bound to exist. Malaysian laws are chronically ambiguous in several cases.

Well, Perikatan Nasional was in the government when the anti-hopping law was passed. They had opposed allowing some of the provisions that probably may have filtered out those who jumped.

Bersatu's own constitution ignored this "jumping" until it realised its folly. Of course, while in power, it may have worked to their advantage, but once out of power, it worked against them.

Pakatan Harapan should take this as a lesson as one day this sort of "jumping" may come to haunt it.

OrangePanther1466: Even if the Dewan Rakyat speaker sides with Bersatu and granted their request to declare the six seats as vacant, these MPs would resort to the courts to interpret the law.

There are many triable issues here, including whether the clause dealing with automatic termination of a person's membership in the party is valid.

It can be said that the clause restricts an MP's right of association.

In our parliamentary system, voters vote for the individual, not the party.

Hence, it's incongruous with our election laws that a party can hold sway over an MP's legitimacy to the seat he has been elected for.

Obviously, the party's supreme council will have to take action to declare an automatic loss of membership has occurred.

This can be interpreted as the party effectively sacking the MP or, conversely, that the MP has voluntarily resigned by wilfully triggering the automatic cessation of membership.

In the first scenario, the MP gets to keep his seat, whilst in the second scenario, he loses it.

In short, this is not an open and shut case. This issue is going to drag on.

BlueShark1548: Dewan Rakyat speaker Johari Abdul is likely to interpret the law as the situation does not require the elected Bersatu MPs to resign.

Looks like Bersatu would have to seek the court's interpretation, and this process may carry through to 2025.

By this time. the general election might be called if Harapan can carry out its promised reforms and the economy improves.

The Watcher: I feel that this speaker's decision on whether the six MPs - Zulkafperi Hanapi (Tanjong Karang), Zahari Kechik (Jeli), Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid (Kuala Kangsar), Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal (Bukit Gantang), Suhaili Abdul Rahman (Labuan) and Mohd Azizi Abu Naim (Gua Musang) - should vacate their seats will not confirm the validity of the anti-hopping law as there is no guarantee that the next speaker will decide according to same basis.

Speakers are not bound by precedence, are they?

Anonymous_3f4b: Once you betray the party that allowed you to stand for election and betray the voter's trust, the proper and most honourable thing to do is to resign, vacate the seat and call for a by-election.

Let the voters decide if they want to return the mandate to you. A by-election for all six seats is the honourable and correct thing to do.

V S: Agree. You should get the mandate of the people who voted for you to represent them.

Simple common sense. If you leap for better opportunities, at least have the courtesy to resign and seek re-election from the same people so you can serve them with the new party.

It is the most gentlemanly thing to do as a politician. Don’t annoy your supporters.

BrownRabbit3061: Politicians are wasting valuable time rather than being productive, wasting taxpayers' money on this nonsense of wanting to hold on to power.

Politicians are the ones who messed up Malaysia and its people. All of them are greedy for power rather than serve the people who elected them.

Righteousness4all: It is because of politicians on both sides of the divide that the nation is where it is today.

We must trust our own eyes, ears, brain and heart. What else can we do?

We should just vote for independent candidates, at least for one term. We have nothing to lose as things are already a mess now.

Optimus: This scenario could possibly be avoided if the government provided some funding to elected MPs from the opposition for their constituencies.

It is believed that this is the only reason that these Bersatu MPs are supporting the present government.

Coward: @Optimus, do you really believe that?

I am not making excuses for the ruling parties, but they could develop and tap outside sources the way the Harapan parties did when they were in opposition.

If it is indeed true they switched sides just for funding, one might question how good they are as representatives of the people if they cannot even overcome this test.

All the more reason to hold a by-election.

Pink: Whether they lose their seats or not their image and reputation are already tarnished and will be remembered as unprincipled, something that they will take to their graves.

Sadly, they will be able to take a big pension after they have been kicked out of Parliament.

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