EC, the ‘democracy killer’
By Selena Tay, FMT
Our vote is very important and there’s no measure of its worth. To illustrate this point further, here is how in 1969 MCA’s late Tan Siew Sin campaigned for votes in the parliamentary seat of Bangsar by saying that there was no point whatsoever in voting for the Opposition (DAP’s Goh Hock Guan).
“The ordinary voter should remember that while a bigger opposition is all right in theory, in practice it means that those voters represented by opposition members will suffer, and suffer hideously, merely to enjoy the luxury of having someone there in Parliament scolding the government on their behalf,” he said.
The above quotation is taken from the bestseller by Dr Kua Kia Soong entitled “May 13” which was published in 2007.
Knowing how precious each vote is, it is therefore not surprising that in order to win every general election, Barisan Nasional goes about soliciting votes by fair means or foul.
Thus, it is of utmost importance to ensure that all the 10 recommendations proposed by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) for electoral reform are implemented before the 13th general election takes place. Otherwise, the PSC is just a sham to con the public.
However, these 10 proposals do not quite resemble Bersih 2.0′s demands except for the proposal to use indelible ink and the proposal to clean up the electoral rolls. As for the postal ballot, now it will be called “Advance Voting” but the essence is still the same, it is only the terminology that differs.
Listed below are Bersih 2.0′s eight demands:
- Clean-up of the electoral roll
- Use of indelible ink
- Reform the postal ballot
- Minimum of 21 days campaign period
- Free and fair access to the media
- Strengthen public institutions
- Stop corruption
- Stop dirty politics
BN’s greatest weapon
What is more important is that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is silent on whether the polls will be held before the electoral reforms are implemented. This means that the polls can be called before
the reforms take place. The prime minister is known to have lied before and he must not be allowed to dupe the public as he has so often done so in the past.
The prime minister is one slippery character and those members of the public who have wised up to his tricks must watch him like a hawk to ensure that he does not employ any dubious tricks to pull the wool over the eyes of those who are gullible.
DAP’s Rasah MP Anthony Loke has highlighted cases of army voters in Negri Sembilan who have the same name and date of birth but using two different forms of identification (MyKad as well as the army registration number) in the voter roll.
This will enable the said army man to vote twice in two different polling centres and thus he has two votes. Those undetected cases could be massive and this blatant abuse of the voting process by the armed forces personnel is tantamount to the destruction of democracy.
Another suspicious account of hanky-panky in the Election Commission (EC) is in Lembah Pantai, the parliamentary seat of PKR’s Nurul Izzah.
On Sept 26, 2011, there were 149 registered postal voters but on Nov 2, 2011, the figure shot up to 2,180 postal voters (an increase of 1,363%)! Not only that but in Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum where all the residents have moved out and the kampung is no longer in existence, the number of voters have increased from 3,204 to 3,300. Amazing indeed!
There are many names in Nurul’s constituency without address and these no doubt are phantom voters. Who is creating the names and MyKad numbers out of the blue? What is going on?
In addition, there are unconfirmed reports that at least 200,000 dubious voters have been added to the voter rolls (at least 70,000 in Selangor and more than 50,000 in Penang)! If so, then not only will Pakatan Rakyat lose badly, Pakatan will be wiped out for sure!
