Tindak Mala​ysia challenges EC to a public debate

Civil society movement, Tindak Malaysia today issued a challenge to both the Election Commission (EC) and the Public Select Committee (PSC) to a public debate on how clean the electoral roll is.

The proposed dates have also been suggested – either on April 20, 21 or 22.

Its founder, Wong Piang Yow (for the Chinese press, 黄炳耀) who has submitted over 100 proposals on how to improve the electoral process to safeguard the interest of voters’ rights, said it is time that both the EC and PSC debate with concerned members of the public (Tindak Malaysia) on this important topic which, if broadcast, “live” on RTM will allow Malaysians from all walks of life to decide on the commitment of Prime Minister, Najib Razak’s administration to cleaning up the electoral roll.

“We are prepared to even debate in Bahasa Malaysia,” he said. “Although Tindak Malaysia may only be a small group of volunteers, but in the event that the debate is on, it will attract many other concerned citizens to rally behind Tindak Malaysia.”

Wong said Najib has been going around the country claiming that he, too, wants a clean and fair election. Recently (10th Apr 2012), the EC Chairman, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof was quoted in the Borneo Post, that he was consulting his legal advisors on whether EC could be given the power to delete names of dubious voters. Regulation 25 of the Conduct of Elections already gives him sufficient power to do so and feedback from the ground indicates that he has been using it quietly to cover up bloopers committed by his staff when they tried to manipulate the electoral rolls.

With some 400,000 dubious voters, detected by political analyst, Dr Ong Kian Meng (Merap Project), and this being just the “tip of the iceberg,” Wong said this is “extremely critical” and it is time for the Najib administration to come clean with civil society. “What we see is unfortunately a huge gap between the words of the Prime Minister and the actions of the EC and the Report put up by the PSC on April 3. As elections are widely expected this year, this matter needs to be clarified urgently.”

The PSC in their Interim Report to Parliament in Dec 2012, proposed 10 Recommendations, which included the call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the influx of illegals in Sabah. This proposal disappeared in the Final Report of the PSC that was passed by Parliament in Apr 2012. Next the EC, in their usual stalling tactic, claimed they needed time to study it. Now, hardly 10 days after the submission of the PSC Report, the Chairman of the PSC, Dato Seri Maximus Ongkili, in his role as the deputy president of PBS, is again calling for an RCI.

Are these people serious about the problem or are they trying to confuse the public by playing politics?

Or is the PBS deputy president laying the groundwork for Najib to offer the RCI as a sop after the Apr 28 BERSIH 3.0 sit-in, when it becomes clear to them the extent of the Rakyat’s dissatisfaction with their lack of sincerity? We note that the RCI was practically presented as a fiat accompli in February during Najib’s visit to Sabah but nothing came of that. Is it going to be more of the same this time?

The debate will address three key issues:
•    Redelineation and more even seat size in the Federal Constitution,
•    Preparation of the Electoral Roll under the Election Laws and Regulations,
•    Conduct of Elections under the Election Laws and Regulations.

Wong said Tindak Malaysia has done a lot of ground work on electoral reform in the recent past, and presented it to the Parliamentary Select Committee. “Very few of the recommendations have been adopted. The key areas such as cleaning up the electoral roll, the re-delineation exercise which the EC promised last May to address the vast discrepancy in constituency size, have not been done,” he said.

“Not only that, last month, the EC came out with the excuse that they did not have enough resources to carry it out. Tindak Malaysia offered to carry out this work for them, if Federal funding is forthcoming, and complete it within 6 months, only to be met with an elegant silence from the EC. Their silence speak volumes of their sincerity towards electoral reform.”.

“These urgently needed reforms, as well as proposals to tighten up the electoral procedures, have also been left out by the PSC.”

Wong also condemned the PSC report saying that nearly 90% of the recommendations either have no timelines or are set to timelines that go past GE13, which defeats the calls by the Rakyat that reforms must be implemented in time for GE13!

Wong and his team had recently done an analysis of the 10 Recommendations made by the PSC in December last year, which showed that the recommendations will have an overall negative impact on the elections. “Our analysis of the 22 Recommendations of the PSC’s Final Report has indicated a similar trend,” he said. “In other words, it is all a public-relations exercise without much substance.”

In firing another salvo at the EC, Wong said it has failed to provide voter education to all Malaysians. Instead, he said, it is voluntary organisations such as Tindak Malaysia, that have been trying to fill in the vacuum. “Although we are not funded by any political parties or organisations, trainers from Tindak Malaysia have travelled throughout the country to conduct voter education,” he said, urging members of the public to sign up for the next voter education, by clicking on https://sites.google.com/site/pacabatraining/

Tindak Malaysia is a civil society movement to promote Free and Fair Elections through voter education. Recently, together with the Bersih 2.0 Steering Committee, it submitted a list of proposed amendments to the electoral laws and regulations to the Parliamentary Select Committee.