Elected representatives from the opposition should not all defect to the government as a democracy needs a strong opposition, said DAP Youth chief Howard Lee.

"Malaysia needs a strong and functional opposition to ensure that the democracy in this country does not exist in a hobbled state, when the opposition (representatives) have all run to join the government because they do not know how to function in a mature democracy.

"Umno should realise this and fix the party immediately. Not run to get away from the problem," Lee said in a statement today.

Though it is the prerogative of the elected representatives to decide whether their party is still in line with their own principles, he said the problem arises on whether these representatives are honest about leaving their parties.

When these individuals choose to join one of the Pakatan Harapan component parties, which they once fought against, he said their motives and decisions should be made clear.

"Is it just part of a political play of certain parties to centralise power? Is it an act of saving oneself from the sinking ship named Umno?

"Is it because they cannot bear the responsibility as opposition representatives? Is it because they feel ashamed over the revelation of the wrongdoing of Umno leaders which they did not realise or refused to believe all this while?" he said.

Whatever the reasoning may be for these elected representatives to switch parties, the people deserve to know so that they can judge for themselves, he added.

'Quarantine first' 

Lee said as long as these representatives are genuine about repenting and truly want to work hard to fix the country, then DAP Youth has no issues accepting their decision to leave Umno.

"Even so, DAP Youth is stern on not supporting the acceptance of any representative from Umno-BN into DAP until we are satisfied that the individual was not involved in the tyranny of the previous government," he said.

He also advised the other parties within Harapan to take the same stand.

This comes after Umno suffered another major setback yesterday as six more MPs quit the party. Several Umno MPs had also quit the party earlier this year and later joined Bersatu.

Meanwhile, former Batu Kawan Umno vice-chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan (photo) said in a separate statement that he was glad to hear more Umno MPs quitting the party en masse.

"In my personal view, all the good Umno leaders should go back to the side of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin.

"These two former Umno leaders have burned a lot of themselves to brighten the future of Umno members.

"On any platform or in whatever manner, former leaders and members of Umno should be guided by Mahathir," he said.

However, Khairuddin said, they must be quarantined first so that they can be sowed with the spirit to fight against corruption without personal benefits.

Best platform

He also stressed that Umno leaders who were corrupt must face justice in court.

At the same time, he is also concerned about accepting some of the Umno leaders who may be corrupt as these "parasites" may anger the rakyat if they were accepted into Pakatan Harapan.

"We cannot compromise at all with these parasites who in reality ruined Umno at one point," he said.

Despite that, Khairuddin also hoped that leaders in PAS would follow the example set by Umno leaders leaving the party.

Amanah, he said, would be the best platform for PAS members to continue their fight.

The Amanah candidate for Jasin said the party president Mohamad Sabu has been the most consistent in fighting for his race and religion in the country.

"Our country's political scenario will become more stable after this.

"Insya-Allah, this latest development in our political landscape will benefit the rakyat," he said.

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