Pairin: Those crossing over should seek fresh mandate
The Star (14/5/08): Seek a fresh mandate from the voters if you want to cross over, suggests Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan (BN – Keningau).
He proposed that an anti-hopping law be implemented to enable politicians to switch parties on condition that they vacate their seats and by-elections be held to seek a fresh mandate.
Pairin said that politicians should be allowed to cross over but they ought to seek a fresh mandate so that the social contract between the elected representative and the voters would not be breached.
“This will prove that you do not jump for personal interest. Let voters decide if they still want you after switching parties,” he said.
Debating the motion of thanks on the royal address, Pairin said that he disagreed that the anti-hopping law contravened provisions on the freedom of association, as the High Court had ruled in 1992, citing Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.
“If the law is such that you are not allowed to switch and you are stuck, that is against freedom of association,” he said.
Currently, talk is rife that there are politicians ready to switch parties but in the past, those who had switched never vacated their seats.
In 1990, Pairin had incurred the wrath of then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad when he pulled his Parti Bersatu Sabah out of the Barisan Nasional coalition at the 11th hour to form an opposition state government.
PBS returned to the Barisan fold in 2002 but not before a clutch of Sabah splinter parties, which exist until today, were formed by former PBS second-line leaders who had switched camps.
He proposed that an anti-hopping law be implemented to enable politicians to switch parties on condition that they vacate their seats and by-elections be held to seek a fresh mandate.
Pairin said that politicians should be allowed to cross over but they ought to seek a fresh mandate so that the social contract between the elected representative and the voters would not be breached.
“This will prove that you do not jump for personal interest. Let voters decide if they still want you after switching parties,” he said.
Debating the motion of thanks on the royal address, Pairin said that he disagreed that the anti-hopping law contravened provisions on the freedom of association, as the High Court had ruled in 1992, citing Article 10 of the Federal Constitution.
“If the law is such that you are not allowed to switch and you are stuck, that is against freedom of association,” he said.
Currently, talk is rife that there are politicians ready to switch parties but in the past, those who had switched never vacated their seats.
In 1990, Pairin had incurred the wrath of then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad when he pulled his Parti Bersatu Sabah out of the Barisan Nasional coalition at the 11th hour to form an opposition state government.
PBS returned to the Barisan fold in 2002 but not before a clutch of Sabah splinter parties, which exist until today, were formed by former PBS second-line leaders who had switched camps.
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