KUCHING, March 15 — Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has called for legislative reforms that will disqualify any elected representative who defects and switches allegiance, and prohibit them from contesting in an election for the next 10 years.

In hitting out at the recent defections by opposition members of Parliament, it said the failure of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to implement any significant constitutional and legislative reforms during Pakantan Harapan’s (PH) 22 months in power has allowed party-hopping among MPs to be perpetuated.

It said politicians who defect are pursuing personal power and wealth instead of focusing on solving and managing issues affecting the people as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We condemn mid-term party-hopping among members of Parliament and perceive it as an insult to voters and a gross breach of parliamentary integrity.

"We believe many voters feel betrayed and we urge them to teach these political frogs a lesson and dump them in future elections as a stern warning that this unscrupulous behaviour will no longer be tolerated,” said Sarawak PKR, in a statement issued by its state leadership council yesterday.

The statement also called on defecting politicians to stop using the Covid-19 pandemic and their constituents to justify their action.

At the same time, Sarawak PKR also called for equal and fair allocations for all MPs to enable them to serve their constituencies, saying that institutional reform to reorganise parliamentary funding and allocation was needed so all MPs receive equal and fair allocations.

On Saturday, PKR vice president Dr Xavier Jayakumar announced he was quitting the party to become an independent MP supporting the current Perikatan Nasional (PN) government and Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The Kuala Langat MP is the third MP from PKR to do so, following the last month’s resignations of Julau’s Larry Sng and Tebrau’s Steven Choong.

Shortly after Xavier’s announcement, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali hinted via Twitter that there could be more defections from PKR to PN. — Borneo Post Online