Sin Chew Daily

The federal government changed hands in late February. Following the lead at the federal level, several state governments like Johor, Melaka and Perak have also changed hands from PH to PN, whereby in Kedah, the state government managed to survive with a unique "PPBM+PH" formula.

However, following the defection of four PPBM reps and two from PKR, Mukhriz's MB seat is coming to an end.

PAS sec-gen Takiyuddin Hassan said the Kedah Sultan had received the statutory declaration from 23 state assemblymen to nominate a new MB candidate to take Mukhriz's place.

In another development, Mukhriz argued later that he remained the MB and this could not be negated just with a press conference.

He also said he would meet the Sultan to propose a special state assembly sitting to allow state reps to decide whether to support a no-confidence motion against him.

The latest development shows that PN commands 23 of the state's 36 seats (PAS 15, Umno 2, PPBM 4 and two who have just quit PKR), far more than Mukhriz's 13.

To make things worse, even Mukhriz's closest aides are now leaning towards the enemy side, showing that his influences are indeed dwindling.

Against such a backdrop, no matter how defiant he is, his administration has arrived at the end of the road.

From Putrajaya to Melaka, Perak, Johor and now Kedah, ship-jumping among elected reps has become a highly conservative issue.

This is definitely not the first time ship-jumping has brought down a government in the nation's history. And because of that, there has been powerful voices from the rakyat calling for the enactment of an anti-hopping law.

Unfortunately, those in power are not inclined to put the law into implementation because it does not work to their advantage.

But when the power slips from their hands and they have themselves fallen victim to the unhealthy ship-jumping trend, they start to hit out at such practices.

Because of this, anti-hopping law has become an issue everyone slams but remains unresolved to this day.

Sure enough it is not easy to enact the law as it entails also controversies around freedom of affiliation.

Bersih 2.0 has proposed a "recall election" option to stem the trend of ship-jumping.

With the comparative strengths of parties on both sides of the divide extremely close and highly volatile, it has become imperative for all to seriously reconsider the anti-hopping law as any administration change due to elected reps switching sides is detrimental to the democratic process in betrayal of voters' mandate.

How to effectively stop such unhealthy trend undermining the rights of political parties and electorate should be a question our society must contemplate, and one that all political entities treat with solemnity.