No to the Proposed Anti-Hop Legislation

Let not the Rakyat be Bamboozled Again

I beg to differ from the main stream thinking expressed in your esteemed paper as regards the attempt to garner support for the legislation of the Anti-Hop law. We need to be philosophical and sophisticated in debates that involve important matters. For one, its legislation is undemocratic, that is, not people-oriented and unconstitutional as it undermines and kills the freedom of choice, option and preference of the person. If a Member of Parliament (MP) wishes to “change clothes” all he or she needs to do is to refer to the rakyat, his or her supporters for their opinions and decide based on a simple majority from their decision. The government has no right and constitutional standing to impose its morality on MPs.

As regards the contention that it is unfair for the MPs, Assemblymen and Assemblywomen to leave the political party that gave them the ticket to stand on, one must remember that a political party is just a creature of the rakyat, that is, its existence depends on the rakyat, the commanding bigger picture in life. If the people representative sincerely thinks that the political party can no longer serve the good of the rakyat, it is appropriate and rightly so for the people representative to leave it in view of a better vehicle of service for the rakyat. The people representative may leave the party in good conscience and, therefore, such act is moral. The guiding principle and spirit to be adhered to here is the general good of the rakyat first and not the party’s.

Democracy, rule for the people and by the people, should be the main focus and the more crucial issue to defend and debate and should not be conveniently eclipsed by the sudden proposition of morality. For the BN government to talk about morality now comes to me as a great surprise as it has yet to address the several alleged election offences, one of which is the use of big money to buy votes, committed by its members (Refer to 12. Kesalahan-Kesalahan Pilihan Raya, 12.3.5). By the way, I heard bankers talking about detecting and separating counterfeit RM notes even till last week. For sure they must have been printed in great abundance for purposes known to the voters!

When the federal government brought down the PBS government in the 1990s it encouraged enthusiastically frog politics. Now, it is against MPs from “frogging.” In hindsight, I can only say “you reap what you sow.”

The BN government should consider seriously another alternative, that is, apply the Integrative Social Contracts Theory (ISCT) that allows for moral diversity among various cultures while maintaining certain universal norms as it (ISCT) is realistic, comprehensive, universal, normative, and most of all democratic.

If the BN government is successful in legislating this Anti-Hop law, it must apply retrospectively and retroactively, that is, it must be applied to MPs and Assemblymen and Assemblywomen who have “frogged” to cause the downfall of a government. If it does not apply to these then it is obvious that the government is practicing a double standard. Practising a double standard is more immoral than “political frogging.”

As the original Greek concept of government (“Kybernan”) reminds us, the government is just a driver, a guiding and steering agent, not the nation. The people constitute the nation. The government must never be equated to the nation as it (the government) is a mere creature of the nation. The government should be at the service of the nation, the rakyat and not otherwise. The government being a human institution can err and it is far from being perfect. In some cases the government may only serve its own cause and purposes and not that of the people. It can destroy the nation when it (the government) becomes tyrannical and despotic. To save it we need patriots. A genuine patriot, therefore, is someone who sacrificially protects and guards his or her nation from the cruelties and oppression of the government.

As I see it and considering the circumstances in which this matter is brought to the forefront, it is, at best, a last ditch effort by a rookie to salvage a shaky and collapsing BN government.