The use of indelible ink is an important method to prevent multiple voting and is practiced in many countries including the war-torn and warlord-infested Afghanistan. In Malaysia, the implementation took 50 years only to be canceled three days before the 12th general elections. What is the motivation behind the cancellation?
It is clear that the Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General made their last-minute intervention to a very much expected acceptance by the Election Commission chairperson. Once again the cloak of so-called ‘national security’ is cast to bury the people's proposal to address the cancerous election fraud that is eating up our democracy.
What's wrong with the reasoning to cancel use of the ink? The IGP said that there were reports of fake ink that was planned to be used to confuse voters. If it is really so, what must the IGP do? He must investigate and make arrests and charge the culprits in an open court or work to prevent this from happening by launching a public information exercise.
Not quietly advice the Election Commission to cancel the use of the indelible ink at such crucial moment especially when millions of taxpayers' money has been spent.
The IGP should not meddle with the electoral system and democratic practices of the country based on ridiculous claims and unverified probabilities. My question to the IGP - will the IGP suspend all police stations from operating just because there are claims of some bogus cops masquerading in public at just one particular locality?
The excuse of the constitution needing to be amended for the proposal to be implemented as said by Attorney-General Abdul Ghani Patail also begs a pertinent question. Where were you when the constitution was amended months ago? We still remember the amendment of the constitution just for the sake of one man's term of office.
Purchase illegal?
Why didn't the Attorney-General advise the Election Commission and take steps to amend the relevant provision when the EC first announced the use of the ink? Where was Abdul Ghani Patail when the Election Commission first announced the implementation of the proposal and when they announced the fact that millions of ringgit had been spent for the ink?
The biggest question of all - did the election commission purchase indelible ink worth millions of ringgit using taxpayers money in the absence of any legal provisions hence making the purchase illegal?
On the risk of people getting confused or being tricked into using the ink before the elections as mentioned by the EC chairperson, well, who's responsibility and duty is it to inform and educate the public of election procedures and conducts? Why didn't the EC conduct a test run for public and media feedback on the procedures in enforcing the use of the special ink?
Why didn't the EC conduct public briefing and use the state-owned RTM television channels or other TV channels to inform the public of the new procedures? The EC is duty-bound to inform the public on the conduct of the election and not to only function at the direction of certain parties. The biggest question here again is that if there were no laws in place for the indelible ink to be used, how then was EC able to purchase the ink and inform the public on its implementation?
What message is the EC and government sending to the country with issues like multiple voting and phantom voters being hotly debated and challenged by political parties and the public at large? Any average person and even fence-sitters (whom the ruling party is working hard to convince) will think that the election is being rigged and efforts are being put into place for this to happen.
Inefficient, ineffective
What will the EC do now to ensure that the election is seen as free and fair in face of this massive dent in public confidence in the election system in Malaysia? The EC earlier destroyed its own credibility and the confidence of the various political parties just days ago when it did its stamp duty gymnastics at the very last minute.
Now it’s systematically destroying the confidence of the people who by the thousands via polls reform group Bersih called for and endorsed the use of indelible ink. Even worse are the most ridiculous arguments and reasoning for the cancellation.
There are hundreds of reports and concerns raised on phantom voters, voters who are above the age of 120 years and immigrants, too, being ferried to vote illegally on Saturday. What are you going to do, EC Chairperson Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman? Will the EC dare to cancel the general elections and protect the right of the people to elect their next government?
One thing for sure. We have a most inefficient and ineffective EC, AG's Chambers and police force and that just goes to reflect on the very core of the Malaysian government administration.
It just makes me laugh when I take a glimpse at the Barisan Nasional advert that promises an ‘Efficient Delivery Service’ the next time I get down ato the Bangsar LRT Station. But I won’t be laughing on Saturday when I will mark my opinion on a piece of paper.
Written by K SHAN who is a human rights activist attached to various organisations working with refugees. This article is from Malaysiakini(its free.... at the moment... so surflaa....)
