By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, May 30: Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing has called on elected representatives who hopped from one political party to another to respect their profession and not to treat their political inclination as the ‘house of street prostitutes’.
He believed elected representatives need to be responsible and accountable to their voters and supporters who put their faith in them.
Masing opined that elected representatives who hopped from one party to another will lose their credibility and trust from the public.
“When a lawmaker hops from a party from which he was elected, the element of trust is lost.
“Such trust is lost at every hops he makes.
“The more frequent he hops, the more he lost his credibility in the eyes of the society.
“Laws of diminishing returns, not in cash value, but in credibility and integrity, is applicable.
“And in the end that particular lawmaker becomes worthless in the eyes of our community.
“And the enticer of such move is also equally guilty of degrading our lawmaker’s character,” he said in a statement today.
Masing was responding to Ba’kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian’s comments earlier in which he called elected representatives who hopped from one political party to another as an ‘frog’ that made intelligent move.
Masing, who is Infrastructure and Ports Development Minister, noted the Parliament and the Sarawak Legislative Assembly had in the past tried to push for anti party hopping laws in order to stop elected representatives from party hopping.
He opined party hoppers or widely termed as ‘frog’ are the most demeaning move by any elected representative.
This is because he believed voters will assume that whenever an elected representative hopped from his or her party, they would received cash in return.
As such, Masing who is Baleh assemblyman called on elected representatives who hopped from one party to another to have integrity and not to downgrade themselves by switching their political inclination. -DayakDaily
