YB KOTA BELUD, ELECTORAL ROLL IS NOT YOUR CHILD’S BUKU SALINAN

YB Kota Belud, nobody is asking the EC to remove dead voters unilaterally. That would be illegal, as you rightly pointed out. But it takes a mechanism as simple as flagging out voters age 100 and above and subjecting these records for further follow-up and verification with other official records, etc.

By Air Kosong

YB Abdul Rahman Dahlan of Kota Belud wrote in length on his blog in defence of the Election Commission (EC), “Sorry, you don’t convince me Ambiga”. YB Khairy Jamaluddin of Rembau, who currently is conspicuously absent from the country on some flotilla mission, quickly tweeted “Fantastic article. Intellectually demolishes Bersih”.

It would be fine if YB Rembau actually tweeted “funtastic”, because YB Kota Belud seemed having fun writing the article by taking the electoral roll lightly. If these two YBs are the remaining intellectual YBs left in the ruling class UMNO, producing such intellectually deficient article, no wonder the sorry state of Malaysia in all fronts. (And adding in the endemic, Malaysia is an aspiring Zimbabwe in the making.)

YB Kota Belud effectively saw the electoral roll like his child’s buku salinan, where one practises new words, repeats them (in the case of the electoral roll, literally) and crosses out mistakes. The electoral roll is the very foundation of our democracy. It requires almost impeccable accuracy and quality, in order to build confidence and faith in the electoral system. Almost, because honest mistakes and errors in rare occasions are bound to happen for a register of a few million records.

It is therefore the prerogative and mission of the EC to achieve such high standard. YB Kota Belud wrote like the spokesperson of the EC, stating that it is the responsibility of Malaysians to inform the EC when their family members pass away and should be removed from the electoral roll. To be fair, it is impossible to expect the EC to ensure zero dead voters on the roll. But it is in its interest to institute mechanisms that will help to ensure that. If the EC is indeed honest and discharges its responsibility honourably, it would have come out with such mechanisms years ago. The truth is, none.

YB Kota Belud, nobody is asking the EC to remove dead voters unilaterally. That would be illegal, as you rightly pointed out. But it takes a mechanism as simple as flagging out voters age 100 and above and subjecting these records for further follow-up and verification with other official records, etc. The world is never perfect and perfect solution is nowhere to be found. But as the saying goes, hendak seribu daya, tak hendak seribu dalih. Actions speak volume than defences and counter-accusation.

I am not an expert in electoral systems, nor am I experienced in poll monitoring. So I am not in the position to comment on your points in support of the current postal vote system. But I have been reading enough on reliable sources of reports that practice on the ground is far from what you described. Examples include non-BN party observers disallowed from observing the polling process, officers casting votes on behalf of their subordinates, and discrepancies between the official number of postal voters and the actual votes cast. We shall not generalise based on these reports, but the number of reports and seriousness of such irregularities are a genuine cause for concern, hence the call for reform of the postal vote system.

True to his colour of an UMNO politician, YB Kota Belud conveniently swept aside the claimby his opposite counterpart YB Azmin Ali that six voters of different ethnicity are registered using the address belonging to Azmin’s mother. Don’t belittle any claims of irregularity, be it from Azmin Ali, or Ahmad, Ah Kow or Muthusamy, for that matter. Especially in this case, the claim is verified true by the EC official. Again, it takes only a simple mechanism to flag out addresses with abnormally high number of voters registered to them and follow up the cases accordingly.

Let me add my own case of different flavour. My parents’ family has been residing on the same address for more than 40 years. We have been voting for Segamat constituency, until another new constituency, Sekijang, was created. Our family was forced to split, literally. Only my eldest sister and my mother remain voters of Segamat, while the rest of us have been conveniently assigned to the new Sekijang seat. How funny it is that when a candidate visit our home, he or she needs to be reminded that some of us are not in his/her constituency. Incidentally, Segamat seat has now become almost an impossibility for the Opposition.

Of course not to forget the 739 double postal voter records that I have uncovered in 2008. Mind you, I am not a full-time programmer or professional data mining expert with access to the full EC database. If I could uncover 278 double records by working on my laptop on a three-hour journey, what could the EC has achieved with a proper data mining exercise against its full database? Talking about EC competency…

The lousiest performance of YB Kota Belud in defence of EC is on the implementation of indelible ink. It was withdrawn in the eleventh hour of GE 2008. So YB Kota Belud explained, in the absence of appropriate law, the legal challenge that EC may potentially have to face. No law? Put one up! So what have you and the EC been doing in the last 3 years? Whereas, on the occasion of legalising the extended tenure of the EC chairperson in Dec 2007, the BN pushed through a constitutional amendment in Parlimen with no time lost. Again, hendak seribu daya, tak hendak seribu dalih.

The most flawed reasoning YB Kota Belud has demonstrated is in his apparent support for the ‘democratic right of the voters’. This he did it by equating automatic registration of voters to denying a person’s democratic right not to vote. Wow! I am amazed by such forceful reasoning of an unimaginable degree, like how the home minister Kerishamuddin forcefully justifies his lawlessness in the last few weeks. For goodness sake, turn all the records from the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara into the electoral roll, and the person’s democratic right shall be upheld by being absent from voting or making a spoilt vote. This requires only the logic of a primary school kid, YB Kota Belud.

And perhaps YB Kota Belud’s moral compass needs some recalibration. All acts of vote buying are wrong, morally and legally. By quoting the alleged examples in Hulu Selangor by-election, YB Kota Belud seems to justify the systematic, long practice of vote buying of the UMNO-BN regime. In vain, in vain, YB Kota Belud. Your boss was caught with video evidence of blatant vote buying – the infamous “you help me, I help you”. Too bad. Let’s call a spade a spade. And, what’s wrong of Nik Aziz’s campaign promise of heaven? I think it’s only a notch higher than BN’s typical campaign promise of development. And YB Kota Belud called that “the ultimate mother of all vote buying act”. Idiotic to the unimaginable degree, YB Kota Belud.

There are simply too many cases and reports of irregularities and unfair practices. For practical reasons, no sensible persons will want to pursue each and every one of them. But the certain conclusion is, only a revamp to the current electoral system as demanded by Bersih will be able to re-build the confidence and faith of Malaysians in the system.

Touch your heart, YB Kota Belud, and answer this question: You didn’t afford yourself a chance to be convinced by Ambiga/Bersih when you started the title ‘Sorry, you don’t convince me Ambiga’, did you? Touch your heart again, YB Kota Belud: Have you actually read the 8 demands of Bersih and digest them intellectually? Truth is, all the irregularities and unfair practices of the EC favour the BN one way or another. It is simply not in the interest of UMNO-BN politicians to support the 8 demands set by Bersih, whether or not the demands are reasonable or not.

Now, YB Rembau, for a truly intellectual discussion on this subject matter, I recommend you to read the academic paper by Prof Tey Tsun Hang, titled ‘Malaysia’s electoral system: Government of the people?’. No need of ‘I scratch your back, you scratch my back’ with YB Kota Belud please. Now, after reading the paper, you go back to watch your ship and concentrate on the flotilla. Safe journey.