Umno’s penchant for disgraced lawmakers

But it is people like Jamaluddin, Osman, Radzhi and Badrul and the stench of corruption and laziness around them that pushed people to vote for the opposition in the March 2008 polls.

THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

Port Klang assemblyman Badrul Hisham Abdullah quit PKR yesterday and was almost immediately welcomed by Selangor Umno, who said it would help him with allocations for the state seat.

This isn’t the first time that Umno is so keen to adopt the riff-raff from PKR.

It began in February with PKR assemblymen Jamaludidn Mohd Radzi (Behrang) and Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) who together with DAP’s Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang) brought down the Perak Pakatan Rakyat government.

Both PKR lawmakers were facing corruption charges in a court case which has been postponed repeatedly since their defection and one witness has now recanted his evidence.

In August, PKR’s Lunas assemblyman Mohd Radzhi Salleh also quit the party but wanted to keep his state executive councillor post after allegations of tweaking his mileage and allowance claims. The Kedah Sultan removed him but he was later cleared by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)

In Badrul’s case, he won the seat but was absent from the constituency since Election 2008 due to a medical condition. In resigning from the party, the first-time assemblyman claimed that all allocations for the constituency went through other channels and not through him.

Much will be made of he says in the aftermath of the latest PKR casualty and Umno’s keenness to exploit it for its own gains in a state that used to be its political fortresses.

But it is people like Jamaluddin, Osman, Radzhi and Badrul and the stench of corruption and laziness around them that pushed people to vote for the opposition in the March 2008 polls.

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