When it was reported in the press this morning that Kedah Gerakan Youth had proposed amendments to the current elections laws, imposing monetary penalty of RM50,000 for state assemblymen and RM100,000 for MPs who resigned except in cases of death, illness or other conditions causing them unfit to perform their duties, I dismissed it as another example of scatterbrained ideas from those competing as to who could come out with more stupid suggestions.

However Bernama reported midday that the Deputy Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir is also making the same proposal, saying that the Election Commission should fine state assemblymen or Member of Parliament who resign without just cause or valid reason.

Mukriz said the resignation of assemblymen and MPs has become a trend among the opposition, “apparently to continuously hog the limelight”.

Apparently, Mukriz and Kedah Gerakan Youth belong to a substantial group in the Barisan Nasional quite lacking in grey matters as to have such silly ideas – imagine Opposition MPs or Assemblymen resigning just to “hog the limelight” when his father, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had amended the Constitution in 1990 to bar anyone who resigns as MP or State Assembly member from the right to stand for re-election for five years! Read the rest of this entry »