VOTERS need to be more selective, fussy and, most importantly, be extra careful before deciding to cast their vote for any politician to become their representative in the Parliament or state legislative assembly.
Voters must regard this as a serious matter as it involves the future of the country and themselves as well.
If the representative being voted in turns out to be irresponsible and an unsuitable person in their duties and responsibilities as an elected representative, voters should not point the blame finger at the elected representative.
Instead they should blame themselves for giving their precious vote to such an individual to be become their representative in the first place.
Lately, we have often heard issues surrounding our elected representatives.
Issues like unfulfilled election manifestos and party hopping continue to take place in the country, which have caused many people to become frustrated with the country’s politics as well as politicians.
Such issues also have created instability within the country’s politics and administration.
There is nothing much voters can do if their elected representative doesn’t measure up other than waiting for the next election to change their representative to a new one.
Our existing laws also are not comprehensive enough to cover this issue.
The Federal Constitution only specifies a few situations when the elected representative can become disqualified.
This can be seen clearly under Article 48(1) which stipulates disqualification for membership of Parliament where it states: “Subject to the provisions of this Article, a person is disqualified for being a member of either House of Parliament if (a) he is and has been found or declared to be of unsound mind; or (b) he is an undischarged bankrupt; or (c) he holds an office of profit; or (d) having been nominated for election to either house of Parliament or to the Legislative Assembly of a State, or having acted as election agent to a person so nominated, he has failed to lodge any return of election expenses required by law within the time and in the manner so required; or (e) he has been convicted of an offence by a court of law in the Federation (or, before Malaysia Day, in the territories comprised in the State of Sabah or Sarawak or in Singapore) and sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than one year or to a fine of not less than two thousand ringgit and has not received a free pardon; or (f) he has voluntarily acquired citizenship of, or exercised rights of citizenship in, any country outside the Federation or has made a declaration of allegiance to any country outside the Federation.
There is nothing much voters can do in cases where their elected representative jumps to another political party as well because party hopping is not wrong or illegal in this country.
This is based on Article 10(1)(c) of the Federal Constitution which clearly states that all citizens have the right to form associations, that is, to join, not to join and even leave any association.
This issue has been stressed clearly in the 1992 Supreme Court (now Federal Court) case of Dewan Undangan Negeri Kelantan v Nordin Salleh [1992] 1 CLJ 343.
In this case, the main issue was whether an amendment to the Kelantan state constitution, which prohibits party hopping is inconsistent with Article 10(1)(c).
Article XXXIA of Part I of the Kelantan constitution provides that if any member of the Legislative Assembly, who is a member of a political party, resigns or is expelled from, or for any reasons whatsoever, ceases to be a member of such political party, he shall cease to be a member of the Legislative Assembly and his seat shall become vacant.
The Supreme Court declared that such a law was invalid because the restriction imposed by the Kelantan Constitution could not be a restriction imposed under clauses 2(c) and (3) of Article 10 of the Federal Constitution as it was a law passed by a state legislature and not the Federal Parliament.
From this case, it is clear to us that only Parliament can create a law to prevent party hopping, which they have not done until today.
Due to the absence of any specific law to prevent party hopping, no one can take legal action against any representative who is involved in party hopping.
As such, voters must carry out their own in-depth study of all offered candidates in any election campaign before they cast their precious votes.
Voters should be brave and have enough courage to ask any questions they feel to the potential candidates during election campaign.
Voters must never allowed themselves to give their precious votes to any offered candidates without having definite trust and assurance over the ability and capability of candidates to become their representative.
Muzaffar Syah Mallow is a senior lecturer of Faculty of Syariah and Law at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
