Dirtiest general election in Malaysian history
From the above title, we are certain that many of us would be asking why, what and how. And many of us are also not aware why do Bersih 3.0 need to take place in this 28th April 2012 at Dataran Merdeka. This is because the general elections in Malaysia has been dirty for many years and if the 13th general elections is to be held somewhere this year round, it would be the dirtiest ever general election in our Malaysian history.
Why? Unknown to most people, frauds in the electoral lists are increasingly double almost daily. Names of those who had passed away, those who does not exist at all, those who were not even 21 years of age and those who are not citizens of Malaysia are found in the electoral list. And lately, even names of roads and companies are also included in the electoral lists. Even a prominent member of the Bersih Steering Committee had exposed that he has been declared as "meninggal dunia" by the Elections Commission (EC) and therefore his name has been deliberately removed from the electoral list. So, why are these all happening?
For so many years, officials of EC had repeatedly informed the public that the commission is a fair and just electoral organization, free from any political interference or whatsoever. What kind of justification do they have in claiming that EC is all fair, just and clean? Are they really clean as they claimed? Just look at the electoral lists and a number of frauds which has been reported on and on.
It is not enough when a fraud is reported and then the EC officials get to work on it to delete or amend it. Have the EC ever come up with an improvement plan to prevent such reoccurring circumstances? Did they produce any contingency plan to curb such fraud from happening? Have they ever investigate if such fraud are the work of insiders? Did they ever probe deeper into or corners that contributed to such frauds in the electoral lists? If there is, then the public should be informed about it. And again if there is, where are the evidence of their efforts and why is this still happening around the nation?
Worst case, in Sabah. It looks like the illegal immigrants in the state are increasing almost everyday, every hour, every minute and every second and these illegals had actually outnumbered the state's pribumi Kadazan Dusun by now. Dirtiest of all, these about more than 70 percent of these illegal immigrants are now registered voters. Why aren't any efforts of enforcement to curb such dirty work? It is because of the BN federal government's Project IC (Project M - refers to Mahathir) which aimed to ensure Umno remain in power in that state forever. At one time, a Sabah Umno leader has even boasted that Umno did not need the votes from the Kadazan Dusuns, Muruts and the state's Chinese community there to win the state elections.
Yes, we all knew that a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reform has been established to address the necessary steps and efforts to put the EC back into order. Somehow, the PSC seems to only function like a window dressing in order to ease our people's grievances and whatsoever. We acknowledged that the PSC really go about touring nationwide to check on the people grouses on electoral issues and so on and they had already put up the report and recommendations to the parliament in order to extend the said "reform" implementation onto the EC.
But what then? The parliament with the BN still holding the majority quickly approved the PSC's report without even calling for a thorough debate and scrutiny. When opposition members of parliament complained of inadequate information on the PSC report, the PSC chairman Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, who is also a BN cabinet minister immediately reasoned that the opposition were also represented in the PSC and therefore the opposition bench to should be well-informed of the PSC report contents.
So, what was the concern then? The membership composition of the PSC for the opposition members of parliament is far lesser than the ones from the BN. Opposition members in the PSC had even complained that they do not have sufficient time and opportunity to study the reports deeper and to come up with a balance resolution. What has been done in the PSC were being carried out in such a hurry. So, with the imbalance of membership in the PSC between the BN and oppositions, how do you think that the PSC report would fair well in its presentation? Certainly not!
What about the electoral reforms before the 13th general elections? Is BN going to implement all those recommended reforms prior to the general elections? It seems they not going to let the electoral reforms happen before the general elections as until today they are still no sign of any efforts being carried out to speed up the said reforms. What heard everyday are delays with their unreasonable reasons and so on. It shows the BN is insincere of carrying out the electoral reforms for the people as the BN leaders fear that they may eventually lose their powers if these reforms are put to work.
Therefore, that is why we need the Bersih 3.0 to come into the picture to make the public aware that the BN leaders had systematically cheated us. Let us all prepare for the sacred day on this Saturday, 28th April 2012 in order to continue pressuring the BN federal government to institute the electoral reforms as soon as possible.
And if the BN leaders refuse to hear our people's demands, then translate our votes to expel this government from their bench come the next general elections.
