Boy or boy...are people “critical” nowadays. Just about everything gets criticised. For instance Datuk Zaid Ibrahim’s anti- hopping law proposal.

Already we hear of people “questioning” Zaid’s “ulterior motives”and asking “why now?”. They conclude by saying the proposal was made because the BN fear losing it’s simple majority in parliament.

To be fair to Zaid, he has just been made minister. How could he propose anything earlier? Perhaps it’s a question of bad timing. He made the proposal in the wake of “talk” that several BN members of parliament would cross over to the “the other side”. If that happens the opposition will be government.

Whatever Zaid’s reasons might be, it is a good proposal to some. For one, the minister from Kelantan has found a supporter in Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

Datuk Nik Aziz must have wished for the proposal to be law much earlier considering the harrowing time he went through back in 2004. The election results then gave his PAS led administration victory but only with a very thin majority. The country was abuzz that some elected PAS assemblymen were about to join the BN. It was believed some of them had to be “quarantined” to prevent the possibility of crossovers. The crossover never happened but such was the fear it triggered.

However, such crossovers has happened before with great effect on they very foundation off the political landscape and state administration. Like in Sabah in the late 1970s right to the early years of 1990s.

Most, if not all the time, switching camps involved politicians from the opposition parties. After having won elections on opposition tickets they would make the crossover giving the BN control in the lower house.

So it’s not surprising that the DAP’s Lim Kit Siang moved a motion in parliament in 1978 to introduce a Private Member’s Bill intituled Members of Parliament ( Prevention of Defection ) Act 1978.

The act would have required a member of parliament to vacate his seat within 30 days and cause a by election to be held on his resignation or expulsion from the party on whose ticket he was originally elected.

In short it was a law to prevent defection. To stop politicians from joining rival parties after they’ve won on the tickets of their party of
“ origin”. But such a law was never passed. To some, to have anti hopping law was unconstitutional citing "freedom of association" ruled by the courts.

But some political parties got around it by "forcing" its election candidates to sign undated letters of resignation to tie them down. It was reported some time ago the Joseph Pairin Kitingan- led PBS had used this “insurance policy”. And according to Lim, it was also used by UMNO in Kelantan in 1978 when Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was state liaison chairman.

When Lim proposed the anti hopping law in 1978 he termed defection as “betrayal of the confidence and trust of electorate” Zaid in making his proposal in 2008 called it “unethical”.

On the flip side of the argument we have people asking of politicians who were voted in based on their own merit and not their party? Why can’t they defect as the voters "trust his judgment completely"?

The pro anti hopping law folks would say “ go for the by election then”.
“If the voters trust you completely you will have no problem in winning the by election”.

Then we hear comments like “what’s wrong in defecting when one has lost confidence in the party and do not believe its ideology any more."

The other group would say why now? This can go on and on.

What ever it is , the perception of defection is there’s money involved. Many believe people were paid to defect. Buy over. In the words of Lim Kit Siang a “political corruption”. I can’t agree more although that cannot be proven. So while the powers that be are looking into the anti hopping law proposal please look also into the other aspects of the election process.

Like when a candidate failed to turn up to submit the nomination papers. Or pulling out of the contest a few days after nomination day. Both instances the candidate’s opponent is presented with an easy victory. Menang tanpa bertanding. Won uncontested.

To me that too give rise to perception of political corruption at work. (By MOHSIN ABDULLAH, Editor in Chief for News and Current Affairs of Ntv7 and 8TV)