KUCHING: “Two or three” Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs from Sarawak will cross over to Pakatan Rakyat (PR), claimed state PKR advisor Wan Zainal Abidin Wan Senusi, a Sarawak daily reporterd yesterday.
“I cannot mention names because we do not want what has happened to happen again,” he said, claiming that a BN MP had a change of heart after his name was made public earlier this year.
Zainal said most of the MPs from among the ‘over 40’ who had agreed to make the jump come Sept 16 were from Sabah.On Wednesday the state PKR held a press conference, claiming ‘over 40’ BN MPs would jump ship.
And a press statement it issued yesterday, maintained the number at ‘more than 40’.
The statement, signed by Wan Zainal, read: “More than 40 BN MPs are likely to cross over to Pakatan Rakyat on or before the Merdeka Day on 16 September 2008. This will set a new chapter in the history of Malaysian politics.”
PKR state liaison chief Dominique Ng was also tight-lipped about who the 40 MPs are and how many of them are from Sarawak.
“I am not at a liberty to reveal the number. KL (national PR leaders) will do so when the time is right,” he said when contacted.
State BN leaders have dismissed the claim as false and that it would destabilise the country.
For the last few months PR and PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was claiming that he would take over government from the BN.
The claims of massive crossover became louder when on Aug 26 2008, Anwar succeeded to win the Permatang Pauh (in Penang) by-election with a convincing majority.
Sept 16, 2008 has been bandied around by his supporters to be the deadline of the massive crossover.
After the March 8 general election, the BN MPs were at 140 as against PR’s 82.
Out of the 140 BN MPs, 30 are from Sarawak while 24 are from Sabah.
PR would need at least 31 BN MPs to cross over in order to form a government with a very simple majority.
“The move is significant as a show of disillusionment towards the weak and fragile government administration under Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,” the statement claimed.
Zainal also claimed that he was perplexed as to why BN leaders seemed to view the intending crossover of their MPs to PR as something immoral when opposition-to-BN cross-overs had happened in Sarawak and Sabah before.
“In as far as I can remember the crossing over of elected representatives either individually or by party, is nothing new. We have seen that in Sabah, PBS under (Datuk Seri) Joseph Pairin Kitingan crossed over from BN to join the opposition pact in 1990 and subsequently some years later PBS rejoined BN.
“In Sarawak after a snap state election was called, following the infamous Ming Court incident in 1987, a number of crossing overs by opposition state assemblymen to BN did take place.
“Gramong Juna and Michael Ben from PBDS, a (component) member of the Maju Group, crossed over to PBB-BN.
“Two assemblymen from Permas, another member of the Maju Group, namely Hilary Tawan and Bolhassan Kambar, walked over to PBB-BN.
“Subsequently, PBDS as a party also crossed over to BN to form the BN plus government in Sarawak,” Zainal said.
“The BN leaders then welcomed the crossing-overs with much cheers and gratitude. It was then their turn to take advantage of the crossing overs,” he added.
When contacted for his comment on the same issue, Parliament Deputy Speaker Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the crossovers in the 1980s and 1990s were not the same as the bandied sudden change of federal government which would destabilise the country.
He said a political scenario where MPs jumped ship just to form the central government would be illogical in Malaysia because its citizens had ‘first class mentality’ and thus they could see such act as being ‘undemocratic and unprincipled’.
Junaidi, who is Santubong MP, cited Germany as having citizens with first class mentality.
He said the German federal government only governed with a very simple majority like ‘three or four more members’ but its chancellor and government did not experience threats of crossovers.
“German MPs know that crossing over is undemocratic and unprincipled,” he said.
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