Electoral reform; several steps forward

 1. Clean the electoral roll

The electoral roll is marred with irregularities such as deceased persons and multiple persons registered under a single address or non-existent addresses. The electoral roll must be revised and updated to wipe out these ‘phantom voters’. The rakyat have a right to an electoral roll that is an accurate reflection of the voting population. There are so many century-old voters in the current electoral roll that defies common sense.

 2. Reform postal voting system

Postal ballot should not only be opened for all Malaysian citizens living abroad, but also for those within the country who cannot be physically present in their voting constituency on polling day. This is especially important as it is expected that within the next 10-15 years, 70% of the population would live in urban areas.

Police, military and civil servants too must vote normally like other voters if not on duty on polling day. The postal ballot system must be transparent. Party agents should be allowed to monitor the entire process of postal voting.

 3. Use of indelible ink

Indelible ink must be used in all elections. It is a simple, affordable and effective solution in preventing voter fraud. In 2007, the EC decided to implement the use of indelible ink. However, in the final days leading up to the 12th General Elections, the EC decided to withdraw the use of indelible ink citing legal reasons and rumors of sabotage. Selangor state government has just on the 31^st July used henna in the first ever village poll, why can’t EC implement something equivalent by using indelible ink?

4. Stop corruption

Current efforts to eradicate corruption are non-existence. We demand that serious action is taken against allegations of corruption, including vote buying. Votes buying are so blatant in Sarawak that the rakyat can see how money change hands on polling day; some were given money even without asking. How the governments of the day can claims to have the people mandate if corrupt practices are the means to claim power?

 5. Stop dirty politics

Malaysians are tired of dirty politics that has been the main feature of the Malaysian political arena. As citizens and voters, we are not interested in gutter politics; we are interested in fair and free election whereby the voters decide the future of the nation.

Threats were used to frighten the community into voting for the governing parties in the rural communities in Sarawak over the past decades. The EC turns a blind eye although its officers were on the ground. Don’t let dirty politics hijack our democracy!

 6. Free and fair access to media

The Malaysian mainstream media fails to practice fair and objective reporting during election campaign period. EC must press for all media agencies, especially state-funded media agencies such as Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM) to allocate proportionate and objective coverage for all political parties.

This is especially serious for the rural constituencies where the voters have no other alternative channel to gather information.

 7. Biased EC officers on polling day

We have experienced numerous incidents of EC officers not knowing what to enforce and what not to be enforce at the polling centers and in the polling stations. Many are biased and often taking side with the governing parties. Many returning officers do not even know their duties such as to produce documents to all the counting agents at the end of the counting process and often they refuse to cooperate even when told what they should do.

There are of course more such as gerrymandering but my experience (2 general and 3 state election) showed that the above are some of the basic to a clean and fair election.

David Wong

DAP Sarawak publicity sec.,

ADUN for N. 48 Pelawan

1/8/2011