Rakyat’s vote not for sale

Updated 6 years ago · Published on 13 Jun 2020 10:30AM · 6 Comments

AS I read various day-to-day press comments as part of my research work, I am sometimes puzzled on the reasoning that does not take into consideration the foundational principles of a given subject.

Analogies are used liberally that do not do justice to the subject matter. Some Malaysians indulge in relativistic thinking that ignore universal morality and norms in the realm of politics.

One of those comments is a letter by Richard Lee Foong Kit titled: Political bargaining is not corruption that was publish by NST.

It was in response to Ramkarpal Singh’s recent comments urging the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate possible corruption involving an audio clip where a man with a voice resembling the prime minister’s talked about offering inducements to Umno MPs to defect to Bersatu.

In the letter repudiating Ramkarpal, Lee gives an example of a manager of a football club who decides to woo a player from a rival team with offers of better career prospects and he questions whether this act is against the law.

In the same way, players want to reach their full potential with the right club, a lawmaker wants to be able to deliver his best to the people by joining the right political bloc – not a fledgling one rife with in-fighting, poor leadership and an uncertain future.

Does anyone expect a player to hang up his boots with the current team and start donning the opposing team’s jerseys for free? Even in the corporate sector, pinching staff from rival companies is normal, spawning the headhunting industry.

It seems that Lee does not comprehend the difference between a football club, a corporate entity, and the electoral mandate of the people.

A football club that woos a player from another club is not a political party that is voted by an electorate. A member of parliament is elected by the people. They cannot just jump to another political party unless he or she is able to return the mandate to the people. This is what it means by electoral integrity. It is about trust.

This lies at the heart of faulty and immoral argument that politicians could be bought and sold just because something seems to be more attractive on the other side.

If a politician could be freely bought for positions of power, why waste time having general elections?

If political bargaining using lucrative positions to entice MPs is legitimised, then we are going have a problem where people will start losing confidence in our electoral system.

There would be low turnouts during elections and this would spell disaster to democracy in this country where it will be rule by self-seeking politicians. The country will not be ruled on the principles of common good but whims and fancies of politicians who would be seeking ways enrich themselves.

True sovereignty of a nation resides in the political votes of its citizens that must be respected. Political bargaining is legitimate if it’s based on policies and disagreements and not when it is based on enticing MPs with positions of monetary value to jump ship.

MPs who could be enticed in this way would someday be vulnerable to foreign bribery and this would create instability and invite foreign interference in the country. We cannot ignore universal morality in the realm of electoral politics. – June 13, 2020.

* Ronald Benjamin is secretary, Association for Community and Dialogue.

* 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.

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Comments

  • You are right. It baffles me the justifications politicians tell themselves these days. Its sickening, but we have to plough through all these nonsense and amplify our voice in the voting booth. If we dont vote, we give up the only voice we have.

    Posted 6 years ago by Hailey Wong · Reply

  • GLC posts are a political commodity .... whoever assumes this must be given the boot.

    Posted 6 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • Pls don't mix commercial transaction of a footballer and 'personal' transaction of a political trustee job. Especially jumping over from his/her party nominating candidate to another political party which is obviously contradicting the trust laid on the MP. Even if MP run as a bebas candidate can't betrayed the trust of the voters. We should put a law forbidding such a swap of MP unless with 50% of voters endorsing him to swap. Power of voters must be respected and restored.

    Posted 6 years ago by James Wong · Reply

  • MALAYSIA MALU LAH SIKIT DIVINE IS WATCHING U. Why u PRAY so many times to show off when u dont give a Damm to HUMANITY TOLERANCE RULE OF LAW JUSTICE DOING RIGHT HONEST THINGS TREATING THE HUMAN RACE AS ONE RACE.

    Posted 6 years ago by Lucky Boy · Reply

  • Precisely why the Council of Rulers should get the PM and Opposition Leader together and demand them to introduce a bipartisan anti-hopping law effective immediately after GE15. Otherwise, whether PN or PH wins with a slim majority, the chaos now happening will be repeated, distracting the politicians from concentrating on running the country.

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    While the Malaysian Malays live so much poorer compared to the Singaporean Malays, the UMNO politicians live a much much more luxurious lifestyle and much much wealthier than Singapore politicians.

    Go figure!

    Posted 6 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply

  • Richard Lee is an ass@#* in his argument...a soccer player quits when he's injured or call it a day. For his talent, he gets better endorsement n rewards. On the contrary, apple policing brings great wealth....what a comparison Lee. It shows how shallow your ideas are....u actually went to school???

    Posted 6 years ago by Crishan Veera · Reply