Media statement by Lim Guan Eng in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, 24^th August 2012: 

Any proposed amendment of the Penang State Constitution to ban party hopping will protect the people of Malaysia from being cheated of their choice of State governments again  

Twenty years has passed since the Malaysian courts opened the floodgates to political defections and "allowed frogs and tadpoles to be bred recklessly" among elected representatives in Malaysia by permitting the foundation of democratic governance in our country to be threatened by corrupt inducements of cash and political favours. In the 1992 case of Dewan Undangan Negeri Kelantan v. Nordin Salleh, the Supreme Court led by Tun Hamid Omar upheld the decision of High Court Justice Eusoffe Chin to strike down a provision of the Kelantan Constitution that required State Legislative Assemblymen, if they quit their party, to seek re-election by the voters who elected them.

Since that decision, the people of Malaysia have suffered as democratically-elected governments in Sabah (1994) and Perak (2009) have been overthrown through underhand means in defiance of the will of the people expressed at the ballot box. In both of these cases the very parties rejected by the people of Sabah and Perak in the preceding general elections have been brought back to power against the will of the people, and without the voters of those States having being given any say in the matter.

For any elected representative elected on a party ticket to hop or cross over is an immoral, unethical and unprincipled act that shows utter contempt for the democratic choice of their voters. If they were elected on the party they represent, they should resign their seat and seek a fresh mandate from the people if they chose to leave the party platform on which they were elected on. Democracy, accountability and ethical conduct demands that the voters be given another opportunity to pass judgment whether such a decision by the elected representative to hop over is acceptable or not.

Two decades on, it is time that we as Malaysians revisit the issue of political defections so that we can determine whether it shall be the voters or corrupt politicians who are the bosses in this country. My proposal that the Penang state EXCO revisit this issue, after hearing the opinions of the State Legal Advisor, to consider amending the Constitution of Penang to require any Legislative Assemblyman who quits his party to face the judgement of his electors in a by-election. We who are elected by the Rakyat must be answerable to the Rakyat, and should be willing to accept the Rakyat's judgement.

This amendment will enable the Federal Court, as the successor of the old Supreme Court, to re-examine the issue that was decided twenty years ago in Nordin Salleh, which has caused so much havoc in our country in recent times. The Federal Court possesses the powers to review its previous decisions which are clearly wrong.

Just as the Federal Court reviewed and reversed its previous wrong decision in the land case of Boonsom Boonyanit which allowed landowners to be cheated of their land by fraudsters, so the Federal Court should be given the opportunity to revisit and reverse the wrong decision in Nordin Salleh which has allowed the voters of Malaysia twice to be cheated of their choice of State Government by political fraudsters.

Forcing resignations on those who cross over is perfectly legitimate, legally constitutional and widely practiced in the largest democracy in the world – India.

Opposition by UMNO leaders and MCA President Dr Chua Soi Lek to the proposed anti-hopping law only highlights BN’s opportunism and readiness to immorally trade in defections. For Chua to propose a solution to "frogs and tadpoles from being bred recklessly" by amending party rules or the respective party constitution is meaningless and ineffective as no one would be required to resign their seat.

Any proposed amendment of the Penang state constitution to ban party hopping by elected representatives in forcing a by-election to seek a fresh mandate from their constituents will allow the Federal Court to reconsider its judgment in the case of Nordin Salleh, to protect the people of Malaysia against being cheated of their choice of state governments again as happened in Sabah and Perak.

*Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary General & MP for Bagan