The recent expulsion of four Bersatu representatives from the Penang State Assembly, was made against the spirit of the anti-hopping laws, and was just a cheap partisan political move to discredit Bersatu.
Khaliq Mehtab Ishaq (Bertam), Zolkifly Lazim (Teluk Bahang), Afif Bahardin (Seberang Jaya), and Zulkifli Ibrahim (Sungei Acheh) were removed from their assembly seats by a vote in the assemble, which followed party lines.
Both Afif and Zulkifli were sacked from PKR and joined Bersatu before the anti-hoping laws were enacted. Thus, the law has been used retrospectively.
Who will look after vacant constituency citizens should there be any mishaps?
All four assemblymen won their seats under the PKR party logo, a decision made at the time for campaigning convenience for members of the Pakatan Harapan coalition, when Bersatu was a member. Bersatu left the PH coalition after the February 20, 2020 Sheraton Putsch, where all four assemblymen remained within their party Bersatu.
This runs contrary to the intention and spirit of the anti-hopping laws. The vote to make the four seats vacant was a partisan political move, just a few months before a new state election must be held. This leaves the four seats in Penang unrepresented by a local member to assist citizens, and a total disregard for the welfare of Penang citizens.
Article 14A of the state constitution states ‘an assemblyman shall vacate his seat if having been elected as a candidate of a political party, he resigns or is expelled from a party or having been elected otherwise than as a candidate of a political party, he joins a political party’.
The proposers of the motion to remove the four assemblymen, Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Ahmad Zakiyuddin Abdul Rahman (PH-Pinang Tunggal) and seconded by the State Housing, Local Government, Rural and Town Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo (PH-Datuk Keramat), have totally disrespected the spirit of democracy and citizens’ right to representation.
This action shows up the weakness of the anti-hopping laws as the author wrote about last year.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail invoked Section 70 of the Societies Act, which gives the minister the power to exempt any society from complying with any section of the Societies Act. UMNO is also exempted from Section 13 (1) C (iv), which exempts the Registrar of Societies from deregistering any party for contravening it’s rules.
Showing himself to be the most powerful man in Malaysia
This effectively gives UMNO party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his deputy president Mohamed Hasan total power over the party. This is at a time when there is a section of the membership disgruntled with the leadership, and has thus protected Zahid and Tok Mat from the need to be accountable to the party membership. This strips members of their rights, and circumvents democracy within the party.
Are decisions being made to assist partisan politics?
Pakatan Harapan’s commitment to democracy must be scrutinized. Incremental moves circumventing democracy quickly add up. These are dangerous precedents for the future of Malaysian society.
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whoever in power let it be BN, PN or PH makes no difference in respecting democracy in Malaysia.
when Mahathir was in power during first 22 years we all yell at him for hard rule.
now PH in partial power with BN we again yell including this writer.
to me let it be who in power because ignorent malaysian voters decides.
if malaysia fails then the not so clever (s****d) voters are the culprit. the evidence was in last GE15 election for P009 Parliament.
just a waste of time for murray to write. may be murray is prejudice.
Malaysia has never had a functioning democracy..........ever. Perhaps the closest it has come to it is ironically during the Najib era with street demonstrations, slander, treason and sedition being passed off as democratic freedoms of expression.
For that matter the US and UK, Australia and Canada too have never really experienced a democracy either.
Each had its own model of freedoms and democracy often restricted to universal franchise in elections (excluding minorities for decades). It still is a problem in these places.
Pakatan Harappan is nothing more than a by product of a system where politicians serve themselves with generous crumbs for the lowest of the low. Malaysian protesters are nothing but a bunch of political posers with little intellect to support their claims and their demands. Their legal fraternity and judiciary serve as testament to this last statement.