DAP chairman Karpal Singh’s strong stance against party-hopping is deafening amidst the “inelegant silence” of other leaders in the party.
Instead of facing Barisan in the general election as Karpal wants him to, Anwar is still clutching at “Sept 16” straws by personally welcoming Umno’s Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin (Beaufort) and Upko’s deputy-president Datuk Wilfred Bumburing (Tuaran) into Pakatan.
Baradan Kuppusamy, The Star
DAP leaders are fervently hoping that their chairman Karpal Singh will stop courting controversy for at least a few more months and let the party get over with a general election in which it is expected to do well.
But the veteran leader can’t just close up especially when one of his pet topics is in the national news — party hopping — for which Karpal has only derision, seeing it as an act of betrayal of the electorate.
He is dead set against the practice, saying nothing could demean the voter more than an elected representative jumping ship for money, perks and posts.
And he has spoken up against this act of betrayal, not just now but also during Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Sept 16 fiasco in 2008; in February 2009 when three PKR assemblymen defected to Barisan Nasional and even back in the 1970s and 80s when PAS bore the brunt of its assemblymen defecting to Barisan.
Karpal had lashed out at the Pakatan leader when he began enticing Barisan MPs soon after becoming Opposition Leader in 2008.
Anwar had launched his abortive Sept 16 takeover of Putrajaya by trying to entice 30 Barisan MPs which, together with his own 82 MPs, would give him a simple one seat majority in Parliament or so it was speculated.
Karpal had publicly said he did not approve of Anwar’s methods and but other DAP leaders like secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and adviser Lim Kit Siang, the two men who actually run the party, kept silent.
The defections failed to materialise and the Sept 16 coup fell flat.
Five months later, Barisan’s Bota assemblyman Nasarudin Hashim defected and was welcomed with open arms by Anwar in February 2009. Anwar called the defection a brave and principled act.
But Karpal openly declared that it was unprincipled. He went against the Pakatan supremo and most of his backers, warning that only trouble could come out of this.
His warning was brushed aside by PKR and DAP leaders who wanted to beef up their ranks with “defectors”.
Days later, Nasarudin returned to Barisan.
Three assemblymen — two from PKR and one from DAP — also crossed over to Barisan, giving it a simple majority in the Perak state assembly to take over the state government.
DAP’s Jelapang assemblyman Hee Yit Foong, Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Changkat Jering assemblyman Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu had taught the Pakatan a bitter lesson, something that Karpal had warned about.
Now nearly four years later, talks of party hopping is back in the national news with two Sabah veteran MPs from Barisan crossing over to Pakatan in the twilight of their career, claiming that they always had Pakatan’s interest at heart.
Instead of facing Barisan in the general election as Karpal wants him to, Anwar is still clutching at “Sept 16” straws by personally welcoming Umno’s Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin (Beaufort) and Upko’s deputy-president Datuk Wilfred Bumburing (Tuaran) into Pakatan.
He wants to make an impact in east Malaysia whose 55 parliamentary seats are vital for him to enjoy a simple majority in Parliament.
While Karpal has said that DAP is against party hopping as a matter of principle, the party’s real power holders — the men who pull the party levers — are keeping quiet.
Only Karpal has the clout and the seniority in DAP to speak his mind publicly, even if it means going against the wishes of his own party and that of Pakatan.
Other DAP leaders prefer to keep an inelegant silence.
