Hopping from one political party to another within a coalition is not healthy. Indeed it is harmful especially if it is done within the Barisan Nasional (BN). Or so hollered its secretary-general Mohamed Rahmat recently.

To hinder harmful future crossovers, the man has been asked to draft a set of rules, which politicians in the BN had better heed or bleed.

"Behave or you can be expelled," Mohamed huffed and puffed, with the hope of putting a halt to 'hop-full' candidates in the next general election.

Hear, hear, this is no big hoo-ha. There must be some hard and fast rule: "The rule is set. No crossovers and no component parties can accept them."

He must have been particularly worried about Sabah - the land where it is very hip to hop with a handsome reward of course.

Mohamed noted that the election rules were silent on party-hopping what has been a great help has now turned out to be a headache. Too much hopping is no good for the heart you just can't predict anymore who is going to hop and where to and when.

Barisan component members who had accepted the "regulation" must honour it just as they "honoured" the democratically-elected state government of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) of 1994 by hacking it down through party-hopping?

Who can forget the heart-rending speech by Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin Kitingan, the President of the PBS at its 12th Congress on Sept 23, 1997:

"Of course, our most bitter experience as well as that of the people of Sabah as a whole was being forced out of government after winning the 1994 state election. The fourth-term PBS government lasted only about two weeks before the undemocratic maneuverings (my emphasis) of the Barisan Nasional.

"The resignation of the government was caused by defections of a majority of PBS Assemblymen to Barisan Nasional parties. Some of the former PBS Assemblymen also formed their own political parties and later joined the BN. The manner in which the PBS government was forced out of power and made an opposition party is certainly unprecedented in our beloved country of Malaysia."

Of course Mohamed and the Barison Nasional did not have any problems when the PBS decided to hop back into the coalition. They welcomed it.

Alas, against this background, Mohamed's words ring hollow, they sound like a gush of hot air rather then a wind of change.

Hark, the day after Mohamed's hype, Election Commission (EC) chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman decided to hop on to the bandwagon.

The EC chief took the high moral ground to declare that candidates who cross over to another party after winning the election are seen as "people of low morals". He added that "party-hopping should not be happening in this age".

Determined to outdo Mohamed and displaying such "high-mindedness", he added that those elected should serve their party and respect the decision of the people who elected them because of the party they represented.

His suggestion that elected representatives who "allow themselves to be bought over after winning the election...should go back and let the people decide" caused veteran journalist MGG Pillai to remark that the EC chairman was "talking through his hat".

"Anyone who resigns his seat for no reasonable cause is barred from standing for general elections for five years. It was he (Abdul Rashid) who recommended that rule."

One would have high regard for Abdul Rashid if not for the fact that he has been "hopping around" and has hardly taken a principled stand.

This man of high morals has assented to, aided and abetted a culture which he now criticises. He stood in heavy silence as the EC secretary, when a democratically elected state government lost power within days after a general election due to party hopping by dishonourable assemblypersons.

"If he believes those who hop parties after they are elected are men of low morals, then he who conducts the elections in a political climate he encouraged to make that possible must be a man of very low morals indeed," was Pillai's fitting conclusion.

The moral of the story is that those who engage in politics without principles will one day be haunted by the very consequences of their past compromises.