Political Defection in Malaysian and USA

First Iban and Sarawak CM was forced to step down on 24 September 1966 when his fellow Iban politicians, led by Tun Jugah defected to Federal government.

What is political defection? Political defection is a scenario where the whole party members or some members of the party, change side to their opponent.

Throughout the history of Malaysia, so far many four political defections have been reported but I would like to write the four most popular political defections ; First during the removal of Ningkan as a Chief Minister of sarawak by Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR). Dato Stephen Kalong Ningkan was successfully removed as CM of Sarawak with the help of his fellow Iban politicians led by Tun Jugah. Without  Tun Jugah defection , Ningkan wouldn't be removed as a CM.

Partly Responsible for Ningkan Removal as First CM of Sarawak  in 1966

Second defection also happened in sarawak in 1987,when the seven assemblymen from PBDS defected to SNAP and PBB.

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Sarawak has seen many political frogs since independence, the majority of them were Dayak politicians; and among the first were Nelson Kundai Ngarieng and Stephen Ngelambong from SNAP to PBB, Simon Dembab Maja and Penghulu Abok Anak Jalin from Pesaka to PBB in 1970. Years later Serian MP Richard Riot resigned from PBDS and defected to SUPP.The most popular political defection among the dayak politician happened in 1987. Before the State election in April 1987, 28 State assemblymen resigned from their parties to defect to PBDS and Persatuan Rakyat Malaysia Sarawak (Permas).*Those from Sarawak National Party (SNAP) joined Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and they were SNAP deputy president Edward Jeli, SNAP secretary general Joseph Balan Seling, SNAP vice president Michael Ben Anak Panggi and SNAP CEC member Geman Anak Itam. Their defections prompted Sarawak’s Chief Minster Abdul Taib Mahmud to call for a fresh election which was held on 15 and 16 April 1987.PBDS won 15 seats, while Permas won only five seats. Edward Jeli, Geman Anak Itam, Balan Seling and Michael Ben won with big majorities in their respective constituencies. On 14 July 1987, Edward Jeli and Geman leap-frogged back to SNAP, while Balan and Michael Ben hopped to PBB. Sora Anak Rosah defected from PBDS to PBB.PBDS seats were further reduced to seven when months later Gramong Juna, Mikai Mandau and Bolhassan Kambar defected to PBB. Source The Broken Shield

PBS led by Pairin Kitingan Lost Sabah when majority of its assemlymen defected to BN in 1994

And the third political defection happened in Sabah in 1994, when the majority of 25 Parti Bersatu Sabah assemblymen crossed over to BN and helped BN to form-up the government in Sabah.

The most controversies political  defection in Malaysia history happened in Perak when the 3 Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen, with the help of MACC and money politic defected to BN in February 2009

And the fourth and the most controversal political defection occurred in Feb 2009 in Perak when 2 PKR assemblymen and one assemblyman from DAP annaunced their alliance to BN. Thi

Those defection caused Pakatan government in Perak Collapsed.

But political defection does not only happen in Malaysia. It also happened in develop nation like US, japan and Great Britian.

Throughout US political history, the most popular Political Defection involved the followings :-

(1) Arlen Specter, 2009

Republican apostate Arlen Specter's move to join the Democrats has shaken Congress, but he's not alone. Over the years, scores of politicians have danced from one side of the aisle to the other.
"My party has not defined who I am," said Republican apostate Arlen Specter, ending weeks of speculation on April 28 by announcing his decision to join the Democratic Party. No kidding. Upsetting party politics is old hat for the fifth-term Senator from Pennsylvania: back in 1965, as a candidate for Philadelphia district attorney, Specter shed his Democratic Party affiliation to run as a Republican. That move may have offended a few local pols, but the potential consequences of his more recent shift are more significant: it puts the Democrats one Al Franken victory away from a filibuster-proof majority.

(2) Theodore Roosevelt, 1912

The 26th President's belief in rugged individualism extended to his own political career. Two years after finishing his second term as President, Roosevelt announced his candidacy for a third in 1911. After incumbent William Howard Taft won the Republican nomination, Roosevelt struck out on his own to form the Progressive Party, better known as the Bull Moose Party after Roosevelt's boast to reporters that he was "as strong as a bull moose." Roosevelt wasn't strong enough to win the election, losing to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, though he did outdraw Taft in the popular vote. Nonetheless, his run siphoned enough progressives away from the GOP to give the party a distinctly more conservative feel in the ensuing years.

(3) Wendell Willkie, 1939

A liberal Democrat in his early years, in 1932 Willkie took a break from corporate law to seek the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. After losing to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he went into business for the nation's largest utility-holding company and grew into an outspoken opponent of Roosevelt's New Deal. In 1939 he joined the Republican Party, winning the presidential nomination in 1940 but taking a beating from Roosevelt in the general election. During World War II, Willkie did another 180, going on several diplomatic missions in staunch support of the President's wartime policies. By the time he decided to oppose Roosevelt in the 1944 presidential race, his seesawing loyalties had given Republican power brokers whiplash. They threw the nomination to Thomas Dewey instead. Undeterred, Willkie announced that he would create a new political party but died of a heart attack before the election.

(4) Hillary Clinton, 1960s

The daughter of a Republican father and a Democratic mother, in 1960 13-year-old Hillary Rodham canvassed for Richard Nixon on Chicago's South Side. She also worked as a "Goldwater girl" in the 1964 presidential election — cowgirl outfit and all — and was elected president of the Wellesley Young Republicans as a freshman the following year. "I'm a heart liberal, but a mind conservative," she wrote to a high school friend during college. By graduation, the young leader had decided to follow her heart, stepping down from her GOP post because of her views on civil rights and the Vietnam War and throwing her support behind Eugene McCarthy for President. In 1972, she campaigned for unsuccessful presidential hopeful George McGovern — with the help of her new boyfriend, Bill Clinton.

(5) Ronald Reagan, 1962
 

He may be the patron saint of limited government, but Ronald Reagan started out as a registered Democrat and New Deal supporter. An F.D.R. fan, the Gipper campaigned for Helen Gahagan Douglas in her fruitless 1950 Senate race against Richard Nixon and encouraged Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for President as a Democrat in 1952. While he was working as a spokesman for General Electric, however, his views shifted right. "Under the tousled boyish haircut," he wrote Vice President Nixon of John F. Kennedy in 1960, "is still old Karl Marx." By the time it actually happened in 1962, Reagan's decision to cross over to the GOP didn't come as much of a surprise. "I didn't leave the Democratic Party," he famously said. "The party left me."

(6) Strom Thurmond, 1964
 

Running for President as a Dixiecrat in 1948, Strom Thurmond declared that "all the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches and our places of recreation." By 1964, with civil rights marching onward, it was clear that his fellow Democrats disagreed. Thurmond jumped ship, joining the Republican Party that year. The first major Southern pol to cross the aisle during the civil rights era, the South Carolina Senator marked the beginning of the GOP's appeal to white, Southern conservatives, and helped turn a former blue state red.

(7) Condoleezza Rice, 1982

Speaking at the 2000 Republican National Convention, Condoleezza Rice said her father, a Presbyterian minister, was the Republican she admired most. "The Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote," she said. "The Republicans did." Nonetheless, voting in her first presidential election in 1976, the 27-year-old Rice was a registered Democrat and cast her ballot for Carter. By 1979, however, as a young professor, she was disappointed with what she saw as the President's soft treatment of the Soviet Union and his handling of the Iran hostage crisis. She voted for Reagan in 1980 and joined the GOP in 1984.

(8) Richard Shelby, 1994

Just one day after the Republicans won control of both houses of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections, marking the end of 40 years of Democratic dominance, second-term Alabama Senator Richard Shelby jumped ship from the listing Democratic Party. Popular in his home state, Shelby had publicly butted heads with President Bill Clinton, voting against the young Administration on almost every partisan issue. By joining the Republicans, Shelby boosted their advantage in the Senate to 53-47. "I am changing to a party of hope for America," he proclaimed.

(9) Michael Bloomberg, 2001

A lifelong Democrat, in 2001 Michael Bloomberg found the party too packed with career politicians to give him any shot at becoming New York City mayor. He ran as a Republican instead, and won. He stayed put for the next few years, raising money for the GOP's 2004 convention in New York City and contributing to the campaigns of President George W. Bush and other Republican candidates. In 2007, however — in what was widely viewed as a prelude to a presidential run — Bloomberg bolted, dismissing the political-party system as a "swamp of dysfunction" and registering as an independent. But old habits die hard: for the 2009 mayoral election, Bloomberg is running on both the independent and Republican tickets.

(10) Jim Jeffords, 2001

An open critic of the GOP's 1994 "Contract with America" and one of only five Senate Republicans to vote against both articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton in 1999, Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party in 2001. By becoming the only independent in the Senate, he threw the chamber's carefully calibrated balance of power out of whack, giving the Democrats a 50-49 edge — and thereby granting them all the committee chairmanships and control of the legislative calendar and agenda. At the time, Arlen Specter said Jeffords' defection was "like a death in the family," and noted that the loss ought to prompt the GOP to move toward the center.

But if we look at the reasons for political defection between our country and the USA, we will notice that  in the USA the reasons were  due to their political  principles, but in our country, the motive was for greed, power and monies.

Mupok aku

"Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban"