THE Umno MPs jumping ship are only doing so for the benefits of government, said PKR MP Maria Chin Abdullah.

“Umno has been the government for many years, and they have benefited a lot. They want to jump in (to Pakatan Harapan) just because we are the government now,” she said to The Malaysian Insight.

Maria said those voted in by their constituencies should stay there and “work it out”, and that the people’s vote in the 14th general election should be respected as the people had voted for their representatives based on the party they were in.

“That is your duty and responsibility to your constituencies.”

Maria said the MPs were only weakening the opposition in the country, and that she did not condone “party hopping” as the government needed a strong opposition to keep it in check.

“If all the opposition members come over to PH, it weakens the opposition. Where would the check and balance for the government be then?” she asked.

Maria was commenting on Barisan Nasional secretary-general Nazri Aziz’s plan for Umno to forge an alliance with DAP and PKR to ensure its survival.

In an interview with The Malaysian Insight, Nazri said he believed forging an alliance with the two parties was the only way Umno could survive until the 15th general election, as it currently faced deregistration by the PH government.

Maria said she was concerned that PH would keep taking former Umno members into its member parties.

Recently, several top Sabah Umno leaders left the Barisan Nasional linchpin party to pledge support to Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s leadership.

Yesterday, six Umno MPs left the party by informing party secretary-general Annuar Musa of their departure in a letter to party headquarters.

The six are Hamzah Zainudin (Larut), Rosol Wahid (Hulu Terengganu), Shabudin Yahaya (Tasek Gelugor), Mohd Faisah Mohd Fakeh (Sabah Bernam), Latiff Ahmad (Mersing) and Ikmal Hisham (Tanah Merah).

With their departure, Umno’s seats in Parliament have decreased from 54 to 37.

Among those who have left Umno and joined Bersatu are former Umno secretary-general Radzi Sheikh Aman, Masjid Tanah MP Mas Ermieyati Shamsudin, Johor assemblymen Rasman Ithnain and Roslaily Johari, Bagan Serai MP Noor Azmi Ghazali and four senators – Khairudin E.S. Abd Samad, Suhaimi Abdullah, Isa Abdul Hamid, and Aknan Ehtook.

Perkasa president Ibrahim Ali said he was confident that even if Umno came down to one MP, the party would not completely vanish from Malaysian politics.

“Umno’s fate does not lie in the hands of the MPs. It lies in the hands of the people,” he said, adding that Umno had long been integrated with the nation’s Malays.

When asked if he agreed with the call for Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to step down, Ibrahim said the current leadership in the party should resign if they felt they were the problem.

“All the (Umno) leaders that are present now have to resign if they have problems. And when they do resign, Umno will immediately recover because Umno is not at fault,” he said. – December 15, 2018.