MALAYSIA Baru’s democracy has experienced a setback over the past few weeks with most Malaysians feeling rightfully concerned and questioning the direction in which the country is heading towards. 

Firstly, the prime minister chose to unilaterally reaffirm his insistence of not restoring local elections, thereby continually denying Malaysia’s “third vote” and ensuring our local government remains a democracy-free zone. 

Not long after, an even bigger political upheaval ensued with 12 MPs resigning from Umno and turning independent. The debate about their neutrality remains in question as the MPs from Sabah also announced that they would be pledging their support for the prime minister. As a result, there are only 38 Umno MPs in the parliament and for the first time in Malaysia’s history, Umno has been reduced to the third biggest political party in parliament – lagging in numbers behind both PKR and DAP.     

What is more worrying is that these series of resignations are being publicly viewed as a concerted effort to incentivise opposition MPs to join the PH coalition. There are legitimate grounds to be concerned because our current electoral and parliamentary system does not encourage or support MPs who are not associated with any political parties. Coupled with the unequal opportunity bequeathed to opposition and independent MPs as opposed to government MPs, there is actually little incentive for MPs to stay independent should he or she harbour any intentions to defend his seat in the next general election. Many would believe it is only a matter of time before these MPs officially join the PH coalition.  

The prime minister even went as far as to proclaim that democracy allows even ‘frogs’ to jump, as long as they would be loyal to their ‘new’ party. While MPs’ democratic right to quit or to rebel against his political party should be protected, the hollowing out of Umno or any opposition parties should not be the corollary effect of such practices. Umno has already been depleted by a quarter since the departure of 16 MPs – with three joining Bersatu and one, Warisan – altogether constitutes almost 28% of Umno’s total MPs. 

The weakening of Umno shows no signs of stopping with the ex-Umno Larut MP mentioning that 33 MPs have already signed a letter of support to the prime minister. If this is true, there are only 5 MPs from Umno who are qualified as authentic opposition in any sense. Thus, the notion of having an opposition that could effectively check the current government would be in serious question. Democracy is the real loser in this case because it requires a functioning opposition to fulfil its designated role.  

It is also a mistake to relish Umno’s apparent disintegration, as some Malaysians are doing, because the situation is increasingly reminiscent of the heyday of BN when the opposition was in free fall. Since Independence, Malaysian politics has been overwhelmingly characterised by single party state dominance and any defections would only hurt the opposition while strengthening the governing coalition. Malaysia Baru is fortunate enough to not have the problem of a one-party state now, but it desperately needs a strong opposition to keep the government accountable.

Based on what may be observed, the PH coalition does seem to be in favour of accepting opposition MPs, through consistently making friendly overtures to them. Most notably, its youth wing even agreed to MPs crossing over with just a few strings attached. MPs would only need to be vetted by the MACC, declare their assets and issue a public apology for having supported the previous administration during the last general election, to be accepted by the government. While it is important to ensure MPs are not in any way susceptible to corruptible practices, the acceptance of such MPs is clearly a negation of the mandate made during the last general election. 

When parliamentarians jump ship to join a different party, they are subverting the principle of democracy and disregarding the people’s will and wishes. Even in the event that the independent MP is found to be as clean as a whistle, it does not absolve the fact that he has indeed undermined the mandate he was given by the voters.

Furthermore, political crossover is mostly politician-driven and its process is dictated mostly through the corridors of power. There are arguably two factors that has led to the latest round of party hopping: 1. There is a need for the governing parties to strengthen their parliamentarian numbers for various reasons. 2. MPs from opposition see no prospect of staying within the opposition. 

It is rather unfortunate that in both these reasons, voters are not the primary concern. Instead, these political crossovers reek more of political expediency and preservation. It is no surprise that Malaysians often bemoan politics as being a game for political elites – who can fault them when such undemocratic practices are taking place right under their noses?

Calls have been made for the enactment of anti-hopping laws to prevent such unethical practices but such rigid laws are rendered unconstitutional because it contravenes the right of freedom of association. 

Nevertheless, under the former PR government, the Penang state assembly had introduced a form of anti-hopping law by amending the state constitution to stipulate that any Penang assembly member shall vacate his seat if he resigns or is expelled from his current party or he is an independent during the election and chooses to join a political party. 

The downside of having this law is that it might also have the unintended consequence of shackling parliamentarians and preventing them from going against their own party – is there any guarantee a political party would always act in the interests of Malaysians?

The most effective solution to deter party hopping rests on changing the electoral system to allow one vote for the candidate and another vote for the party itself. This may have the effect of discouraging party hopping, since there would be parliamentary seats belonging solely to the party itself – party hopping would only cause the candidate to lose the seat while letting the party to decide who should represent that particular seat.

In the meantime, we should reject any form of party hopping on principle and pressure our parliamentarians to do so because such practices are anti-democratic to begin with. The government should allow robust and healthy political competition from the opposition, without attempting to provide a platform for them to join their ranks. 

Equally, the opposition MPs should also recognise their role as opposition – since elections are also a process to choose your opposition as much as your government – and start acting like a government-in-waiting, not join the government. 

Any independent MP who wishes to engage in a political crossover should first and foremost ask themselves this very pertinent question: Is it democratic to do so? – December 25, 2018.

* Kenneth Cheng has always been interested in the interplay between human rights and government but more importantly he is a father of two cats, Tangyuan and Toufu. When he is not attending to his feline matters, he is most likely reading books about politics and human rights or playing video games. He is a firm believer in the dictum “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.