YOURSAY | ‘If Suhaili is so confident of support, do what Bersatu asks him to - resign now.’

Labuan MP: I did not abandon ship, it abandoned me

Gan Mu: Once a traitor always a traitor. Labuan MP Suhaili Abdul Rahman was a two-term Umno MP, then stood on the Perikatan Nasional ticket and won.

Now that Umno is part of the unity government, he has changed his loyalty.

He would have happily jumped ship had it not been for the anti-hopping law in force. He knows for a fact that even if PN sacks him, he will still remain an MP.

Any man worth his salt knows that it is morally and ethically just not right for him to declare his support for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whilst remaining in PN, in return for allocations.

How can he ever claim to be loyal to PN when he has breached the trust the party had entrusted to him?

Loyalty for all intent and purpose would mean you stick with the party, abide by its rules and principles, and follow the leadership.

In fact, it is he who abandoned the party and its principles and his suspension is the end result.

If he needs the allowance, his loyalty to his party dictates that he talks to his leaders to meet the PM and reach an agreement in return for allowances for all PN members, as former PM Ismail Sabri Yaacob did with Pakatan Harapan.

Had I voted for him, I would have felt cheated and disappointed that he had changed his support from PN to the unity government.

Kilimanjaro: "Doing the right thing"? I have many dirty words for that but of course, those are not permissible here.

You know what is the right thing mister - you should have resigned and stood as an independent or under another party.

Talking of the right thing? Who are you kidding? You are just making a mockery of yourself. It is leeches like you who give a bad name to all.

I am not the least bothered about how Bersatu feels. They are nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites but what about the people who elected you?

Are you not man enough to go before them to seek a fresh mandate? We can see that 'University Bersatu' did not school you properly as that university itself is so tainted.

LimCat9047: @Kilimanjaro, normally I would agree with you but Bersatu is a traitor party.

Its members have learned to betray and so now they are betraying their own party, giving their Bersatu leaders a dose of their own medicine.

Furthermore, PN has stopped discussing with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi about allocations for their MPs so it is not their fault their MPs give support to the unity government to get allocations.

Coward: While I won't call it bribery, I need to point out that bribery need not be done in the dark, or under the counter.

The ultimate form of bribery is the one done under a clear sky for everyone to see, and there is nothing one can do about it.

And if he is so confident of support do what Bersatu asks him to, resign now, remove the cloud over his head as a traitor that cannot win the election.

Meerkat: Good that this government is strengthened. But the reasons given show that he's spineless or has very poor public relations.

Would any of the major parties want him in the next election?

Winning Scarecrow: @Meerkat, another naive comment from someone who has no clue at all about how the Labuan people love Suhaili.

Suhaili was a two-term MP in Labuan with Umno in the past.

In fact, he never lost an election in Labuan including in GE15 when he was one of the only three PN candidates who won in East Malaysia.

No problem, in fact, I was taken by surprise that he managed to win in Labuan in GE15 since he was having an uphill task facing the overwhelming favourite incumbent from Warisan, another heavyweight from Umno, and the PKR candidate who everyone assumed was enjoying full support from the non-Muslims.

But against all odds, Suhaili won and it would be foolish to expect him to lose in a by-election after securing RM3 million from the Madani government.

Even his political nemesis in Labuan are wise enough not to challenge him to vacate the seat because they stand no chance at all against him now. Only the naive outsiders are noisily making such demands.

PurpleGopher1703: What a sham, why bother with elections when the winner holds the purse and sanctions the opposition financially?

The purse belongs to the people, and all elected MPs should be given the same amount no matter in government or in opposition.

Otherwise, we will always end up with a cesspool of frogs.

A Good Yr: Oh yes, the ship actually got stuck, then took a turn and went off in the wrong direction. The ship accidentally dropped off the four Bersatu MPs. More will be dropped off because the ship is heading into an abyss.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. In the past year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.