PAS should be censured for taking Rembai assemblyman Muhammad Jailaini Khamis into its fold after signing the anti-party hopping pledge in 2022, a former PKR leader said.
Lawyer S. Raveentharan, who was a PKR deputy secretary-general, said the move was legal but immoral.
He said it sends the message to voters that their elected representatives could switch allegiance at the expense of their constituents.
“It caused political instability and ruined the country during the global pandemic in 2020 when the infamous ‘Sheraton’ backdoor move to seize power at the expense of an elected government was engineered. (That had a) a selfish aim that might have caused lives because the government was preoccupied with staying in power rather than channelling all resources to fight Covid-19,” Raveentharan said.
“When Jailaini contested in 2022, he did it on the Barisan Nasional ticket and now he has switched camps just because the state assembly in Malacca was late to adopt a similar law of parliament. It is unbecoming.”
He said the better option was for Jailaini to resign the seat and run again on a PAS ticket in a by-election.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan said the move was legal as the Malacca government had yet to implement the anti-party hopping law when Muhammad Jailaini jumped ship.
“On June 10, 2023, before the Malacca government amended the state constitution on July 31, the Rembia assemblyman applied to become a member of PAS and he was accepted the same day. So now Malacca has three opposition assemblymen instead of two,” Takiyuddin said.
Jailaini was elected the Rembia assemblyman in 2018 on the Pakatan Harapan (PH) ticket. He quit PKR in 2020 and remained in the state assembly as an independent member for nine months. He joined Umno in 2021 and defended his seat as a BN candidate.
On the six Bersatu MPs who were sacked from their party after they pledged loyalty to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Raveentharan said that was a different case all together.
“The six merely pledged allegiance to the political head of a government. All MPs should be doing that out of respect for the prime minister’s (office). But I ask you, did they hop and which party did they hop to?”
The anti-party hopping bill is being interpreted to suit one’s own political agenda instead of being upheld as law, he said.
Since it is mandated, it should be respected, he added.
“In the absence of moral grounds, the law of the land… the constitution supersedes all matters,” he said.
Raveentharan urged all elected representatives to return to serving the people instead of engaging in brinkmanship.
The country needs stability to move on as a nation, he said. – July 17, 2024.
