KUCHING, Feb 14: State Reform Party (STAR) president Lina Soo has questioned those who advocated total reforms for the ‘New Malaysia’ but are now silent over those ‘frogging’, especially from Umno to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).
“Nothing seems to be surprising or impossible in New Malaysia politics anymore. The latest being the seven Umno MPs who crossed over to Bersatu,” she said today.
Describing crossovers as despicable in a true democracy and a betrayal of the mandate of the people, she believed the ‘frogging’ phenomena is going to intensify in the coming weeks — from Umno to Bersatu.
“And where are the leaders of Bersih, NGOs, DAP and PKR? Why are they silent?” she wondered.
Soo asserted that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had made a spectacular comeback “as himself more and more each day and feeds on Ketuanan Melayu rhetoric to grow his strength and power”.
With their deafening silence, she opined that the leaders of the ‘reformasi’ movement had sold the movement and themselves out when they embraced the Bersatu chairman-cum-prime minister as their leader.
Soo lamented that the lust for political power had reigned supreme over the noble objectives of the ‘reformasi’ struggle, and political expediency had overridden the peoples’ wishes for democracy and a fair deal for society.
“In time to come, the Malaysia Baru will be a ‘new’ government formed not of the democratic electoral process, which the people voted for, but of crossovers of elected lawmakers (YBS) who switched allegiance and political parties to serve their own self-interests.
“Proves the truth of the saying ‘in politics, there are no permanent friends or enemies’. There are only ‘permanent interests’. Only the voters are short-changed,” she added.
Yesterday, seven former Umno MPs were accepted into Bersatu. — DayakDaily
