Election Commission boss Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman should tell it directly to outgoing Dr Mahathir Mohamad that party-hoppers have no morals. Wasn't our 'exemplary leader' the one who 'hopped' from old to new Umno after destroying old Umno in 1988?

Barisan's history is full of party-hoppers. Some have done it out of principle - Onn Jaafar left Umno in 1951 - because they wanted to promote a truly multi-racial party.

Others have done it out of greed - Yong Teck Lee, Bernard Dompok, Mark Koding, Joseph Kurup, Kasitah Gaddam, Salleh Tun Said left PBS to rejoin BN because of their unwillingness to lose the good life, no thanks to Pairin Kitingan's principled opposition to Mahathir's mistreatment of Sabahans.

Party-hoppers do so because of good and bad reasons. It is not fair to call them people of low morals. Tan Chee Khoon left Gerakan after 1969 because Lim Chong Eu wanted the multi-racial party to become a pro-business component party of the Barisan Nasional. Is he of low morals?

Tan Sri Rashid, don't talk nonsense and insult the intelligence of Malaysians.