Of late, there are many disgruntled Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen who have jumped ship and declared themselves Independent MPs or ADUNs.
We should not condemn everyone who changed their political affiliation per se, but look at the circumstances of each case. To me, it is blatantly obvious if someone left an opposition coalition party and joined a ruling coalition party because the latter has all the power to provide position, money, even solve pending criminal charges, or all in one attractive package deal, that the move was for selfish gains. On the other hand, if someone were to leave a ruling coalition party and even resigned as a Cabinet Minister, I could not doubt that his intention was noble. Generally, even just leaving the ruling party and joining the opposition would put him or her in my good book because of the inherent disadvantages of being in the opposition.
For those who claimed to have left an opposition party because they have lost confidence in the leadership, I would say that it takes more than that to convince people because they stood for election under a party banner and the people elected them because of their affiliation with that party. They were given a chance by the leaders to stand and given the mandate by the people, and the least they could have done was to continue for the full term before deciding otherwise. If not, the most honourable thing to do is to resign and let the voters decide again.
The other point is the question, 'How could anyone claim to be Independent if at the point of leaving a party, he or she has acknowledged or acted in favour of another?' To be truly independent, I would expect the representative to act according to his conscience whenever there is a call for vote in Parliament or a State Assembly.
Last but not least, a truly Independent people's representative is one who had stood as an Independent and won in the election. I will definitely not dispute that!
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