Jumping Ship the Malaysian Way

There is no word to describe how silly Malaysian politics has turned out since March 8th. It all started with Pakatan being greedy with their gains. Since winning 5 states is not sufficient to quell their thirst for power, Dato' Seri Anwar vowed to magically turn 30 Barisan Nasional MPs to Pakatan.

On hearing this threat of losing control of Parliament and subsequently the Federal Government, the Barisan Nasional government sent some 49 Members of Parliament to Taiwan to study agriculture and hordes of other life skills from the Taiwanese. Pursuing them were several Pakatan MPs, who boarded the next plane to Taiwan with a mission in hand of securing jumps from the agriculture enthusiasts.

Then the President of PKR pulled a stunt to make way for her husband. Her husband was reported to have contemplated several seats, including Bandar Tun Razak and Kulim. Both were deemed to be too hot to handle. Fearing that his ambitious return would backfire, he returned to Penang to win comfortably, crushing BN's candidate to dust with a bigger majority.

Not perturbed with changing the so-called take over dates numerous times to the point of idiocy and ridicule creating a national political conundrum, the new MP of Permatang Pauh scouted from state to state to seek potential disgruntled BN reps who are willing to jump ship for a range of reasons. The most talked about states were Sabah, Sarawak, and now Perak. The first to break the ice was Nasarudin Hashim, Bota state assemblyman. He said "Kalau dulu UMNO banyak pemimpin penuh dengan idealisma, kini semakin terhakis dengan politik wang dan juga soal-soal lain, dan semua ini turut menghakis kepercayaan saya kepada UMNO", during a PC with DSAI and his lieutenants.

The primary concern that should be addressed is not tightening regulations to prohibit party jumps, however, it is to probe why people are not satisfied with the leadership and why they were selected to contest. As soon as Nasarudin made the jump official, Dato' Tajol called for a meeting with all Perak UMNO State Assemblymen. 5 were MIA. This is not a good signal for UMNO leadership. Dato' Seri Najib has taken over the post of BN State Chairman of Perak.

2 more state assemblymen have resigned to make way for 2 more by-elections. Pretty soon, the Malaysia Book of Records would include the biggest number of by-elections held in a term. Huge amount of resources have to be spent to conduct these events, especially when we are in the midst of an economic turmoil. Not to mention the amount of time and commitment needed to run campaigns. Irresponsible, shameless, reckless, self-centered. These words suit well for these fine Wakil Rakyat.