16 BN MPS HOP OVER TO PKR?

PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohamad Akin claimed today that up to 15 to 16 Barisan Nasional parliamentarians including Umno MPs are ready to jump ship to PKR.

The 12th general election concluded on March 8, 2008 and the opposition parties - PKR, DAP and PAS - won 82 seats in Parliament, while BN captured 140. The opposition coalition needs another 30 MPs to defect before it can form the government.

Ironically, there is no political crisis. But the continuation of PKR courting BN elected representatives, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak, in a bid to form the federal government, dramatically creating the political instability of the country. The general instability is what worries the people and foreign investors.

Logically, the defection by buying up parliamentarians is not impossible as Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad said, “Both sides are trying to buy. That is very democratic. RM10 million is the going price. Just imagine, if you are a Yang Berhormat and you had RM10 million in the pocket. That's very democratic." This is what worries the ruling party.

The political hopping frogs demonstrate once again how the “ethical factor” is discounted by public because of an unfortunate but widespread belief that politicians are unreliable when it comes to matters of ethical conduct. Indeed the general election campaign had illustrated how a holiness contest between politicians is doomed to backfire when it comes to conflict of interest.

It is arguable to say that the accepting level of discernment in the public response about raising ethical standards in public life of politicians especially toward political jumping frogs is still low or with the objection. But most voters are able to distinguish between those charges that matter and those, which are irrelevant to a fair judgment about the personal political benefit or national interest.

As a consequence, the public cynicism toward ethical politicians is reinforced while measures designed to enhance accountability and probity is weakened.

Undoubtedly, in this complex political incident, to a certain extent, it appeared the normative core conspiracy theory that consists of two schools of thought, which are intended to balance out the relation between the goal of maximum personal political benefit and public justice.

Once again, the questions therefore are: Can new form of political jumping ethics politically replace traditional forms of “non-jumping” political ethics or are they just artifacts of an individualistic post-materialist political society with no real political substance but just more than RM10 million? Are we going to protect the notorious Malaysian political jumping frogs or exterminate them for the sake of healthy political culture? Is the ethical jurisdiction needs the integrity spotlight at full beam? You ought to decide it before too late.