MELAKA: Pakatan Harapan and its chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's attempt to legitimise the "two Melaka frogs" contesting under the pact's banner is amusing, MCA Melaka's Bemban candidate Datuk Koh Chin Han said.
Koh pointed out that PH's decision to field former Umno men Datuk Seri Idris Haron and Datuk Nor Azman Hassan for the Asahan and Pantai Kundor seats respectively went against the coalition's promise to never accept political frogs.
"Furthermore, Anwar and PH's repeated attempts to legitimise are laughable. According to their rationale, representatives who jump out of PH are traitors deserving of the label of 'frogs' but, representatives who hopped into the coalition should be praised as heroes eager to return PH's mandate.
"For these 'heroes', PH will spare no efforts to defend their character and even grant them the opportunity to contest as candidates.
"Hence, we urge all Melakans to cast their votes against these political frogs and the PH coalition which perpetuates this practice.
"Let us put an end to the detrimental culture of party-hopping, starting here in Melaka," he said in a press conference here today.
Koh described PH's acceptance of Idris and Nor Azman as a "selfish pursuit of power" that would put Melaka voters' health at risk given that the Covid-19 pandemic was far from over.
This decision has gone against every promise they have ever made on rejecting party-hopping, not to mention the blatant betrayal of all Melaka voters.
He also slammed DAP, saying the party couldn't distance itself from PKR's decision given that both parties were under the same coalition.
"It's a case of 'do as I say, not as I do' with PH. After hollering at the top of their voice on its conviction to reject party-hopping, the moment an opportunity presents itself, PH immediately embraced the 'frogs' to devise the collapse of the Melaka state government in the midst of a pandemic.
"No matter how hard DAP tries to distance itself from PH's party-hopping practices, there can only be two possible explanations.
"It is either DAP suffers from a lack of negotiation power within its coalition, or DAP has always been aware of the political schemes but throws on an act to spare itself from the subsequent backlash," he said.
On Saturday, Anwar made a surprising announcement saying Idris and Nor Azman would be contesting in the Melaka state election under PH's ticket.
Idris was sacked from Umno after he withdrew support for the then Melaka chief minister along with three others including Nor Azman, which then led to the collapse of the Barisan Nasional-led state government, paving the way for snap polls.
The other two are Datuk Noor Effandi Ahmad, who has since been sacked from Parti Pribumi Malaysia (Bersatu), and independent Norhizam Hassan Baktee who was formerly a DAP state assemblyman.