Some of the reasons why politicians defect may include:
Radical Change of Party Manifesto
Very rarely, a political party may make major changes to its manifesto with a result that some elected members may, for conscience sake, resign and join an opposing party.
Personality Clashes
It is a great temptation for all leaders, and especially political leaders who are always in the public gaze, to become arrogant. They fail to show due concern for those serving under them. Sometimes these clashes may be due to race or gender. Malaysian politics is still very male-dominated and possibly some of the women are given a hard time. If ‘personality clashes’ are the main reason for a politician to defect, then the political party needs to do much soul-searching and has to shoulder much of the blame for the situation.
Personal Gain – Position/Monetary
Politicians may desert their party because they may feel that they are not being fully recognised and are being left out in the promotional appointments. Alternatively, an opposing party may be offering them a high post if they join their membership. The craving for power is not confined to politicians!
The lowest and most despicable reason for party-hopping is the acceptance of a bribe. It is alleged that some Malaysian politicians are being offered sums as large as RM5 million or RM10 million dollars – a very great temptation!
However, we must be careful not to judge party hoppers, who betray the trust of their voters, too harshly. God, our Father, has trusted us his children to love and obey him. Daily we betray this trust when we “sin against Him and against our fellow men in thought and word and deed, in the evil we have done and in the good we have not done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault.”
The Micah Mandate is a Christian-based public interest advocacy ministry that seeks a transformation of our nation through justice, mercy and humility.
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I agree that we should not judge as democracy allows us to agree on those who disagree, but and there is always the but, when the actions of the hoppers adversely affect the political stability and the lives of the people then it is the civis duty of the citizen to rise to the challenge to take actions to stop the rot.
The political hopping is against the basic principle of the Government BY the people and it erodes the moral value that we hold so dear in our heart. Once the people have decided, there is no moral standing for the politicans and political parties to rob their decision nomatter how unrational the voters have acted. Only by subsribing to the principle of what the 15th President of the US that “the surest way to settle disagreement is through the ballot boxes” shall our democraty be preserved and glorify.
Please give back the Perakian’s rights to decide who shall have their mandate through ballot boxes.
Just my 2 sen worth.