Using party-hopping as psychological warfare

Political defections or, to use the local lingo, frog-jumping (lompat katak) are a regular feature in Malaysian life. But some defections seem to be given more prominence to enable certain political parties to extract as much political mileage as possible. From our experience, we can say that such hopping is usually highlighted at opportune moments close to a general election.

Such revelations are calculated to embarrass the party which has lost some members as well as to demoralise its remaining membership. And the mainstream media tend to highlight the defections of former opposition party members to the warm embrace of Umno, MCA or other BN component parties. Very seldom do the media cover defections in favour of opposition parties - even though they do occur in significant numbers especially in the reformasi era.

Not surprisingly, in today's New Straits Times on page 7, a headline screams, “58 from Keadilan cross over to Umno.” Welcoming the “reformed” individuals, whose identities were revealed, Umno vice-president Najib Razak called the defections a “timely realisation.” He added, “We will continue to see more members of Opposition parties turning around to support Umno.” So watch this space, fellow citizens.

Not to be outdoned by the NST, The Star on page 3 flashes a photo (above) of the smiling “reformed” individuals with Najib Razak. In its report, the daily says in its somewhat sensationalist intro, “Parti Keadilan Nasional was rocked by the defection of more party leaders yesterday with 58 ‘grassroot leaders’ leaving the opposition party to join Umno.”