SECTIONS of Pakatan Harapan appear to be uneasy over the defections of Barisan Nasional state and parliamentary representatives to the newly minted PH government.

DAP Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh said such moves were ill-advised and ought not to be condoned.

“With the greatest of respect, the true reforms PH needs to embark on in its quest to save Malaysia must necessarily exclude BN representatives as they were the ones who condoned and supported the regime under former prime minister Najib Razak, which PH finally toppled,” he said in a statement today.

Ramkarpal said BN representatives were complicit in the mismanagement of the country during Najib’s tenure in office.

“An influx of BN representatives to PH will see an erosion of confidence among PH voters as they voted for change, which will be severely compromised in the event such BN representatives are allowed to join PH,” he said.

Ramkarpal said PH had the numbers and, through hard work among its ranks, will be able to secure a two-thirds majority legitimately in the next general election.

He said the PH government should adopt the anti-hopping stance taken by the Penang government when it introduced the country’s first anti-hopping law in 2012, under which a member of the state legislative assembly must vacate his seat if he resigns, is expelled from or ceases to be a member of the party that he was elected as a candidate of (with a few exceptions).

“The country must be cleansed of the scourge of six decades of BN rule. It is imperative for BN to be completely rejected to achieve this aim and the PH leadership must seriously reconsider entertaining such defections.” – May 13, 2018