Voting fraud at the M'sian armed forces or ATM - a most heinous theft

Mind you, I am not talking about money dispensing machines sticking out from the walls of banks in the country. I am referring to the Angkatan Tentera Malaysia (ATM) or the Malaysian armed forces.

The latest revelations of postal vote fraud in the ATM is not in the least bit surprising as there have been complaints of it dating back to the last 3 general elections. Postal votes of army personnel have always been suspect and the BN has never abandoned the practise despite the advice of many transparency experts.

But still it is a very serious allegation that warrants immediate investigation.

A bad example

To top it all, Armed Forces chief General Zulkifeli Mohd Zin has vehemently denied the allegations. He even warned that it was "treachery" for staff to blow the whistle on their bosses. “The ATM (armed forces) is the nation's wall of defence that should be supported by all levels of the people, regardless of ethnicity, religion and political position," Gen Zul said.

The four whistleblowers who irked Gen Zulkifeli by going public last week are Major (Rtd) Risman Mastor, Kamarulzaman Ibrahim, Mohamed Nasir Ahmad and Mohd Kamil Omar. They admitted to marking thousands of postal votes in three separate general elections between 1978 and 1999. At the orders of their commanding officers, they said they marked the postal votes on behalf of colleagues who were out in the field. Of course, the 'mark' was for the BN ruling coalition.

Their startling revelation came just days after another ex-army man made a similar claim. Gen Zulkifeli was immediately condemned for his outright denial of possible irregularities in the postal voting system and his depiction of whistle blowers as ‘traitors’ and ‘betrayers.' The implicit threat in his words were clear. Few Malaysians are willing to get entangled in 'treasonous' activities or even be accused of doing so.

Stay an army of pride and not of rot

The Malaysian armed forces is a professional army, unlike some countries who depends on volunteer corps. The army is known for its professionalism, integrity, honour, independence and high degree of discipline. Soldiers are taught to sacrifice themselves in the defence of the country at all cost. Just like civilians, the uniformed units are also citizens of the country, with the right to vote and choose their leaders. So, it is saddening to know that some of them have been forfeited of their right by unscrupulous hands hijacking their identities and voting on their behalf without notifying them while they were away.

The military is also supposed to be apolitical, independent and impartial to the government of the day. It's duty is to the King and the country. Therefore, it is not only wrong, but a great national disservice to indoctrinate public servants and the armed forces to be more loyal to BN than to the country. It is also a grevious wrong to equate loyalty to the BN as loyalty to the country.

It is hard to believe that BN has no knowledge of this. It is indeed shocking to finally hear from the horse's mouths that there are hidden hands who have been propping up the government through such shady deals, all for the sake of ensuring a BN victory come every election. For the Chief of the Armed Forces to deny the occurrence of such voting fraud without a thorough investigation is thus totally unbecoming. Instead of allaying the fears of the public, Gen Zulkifeli is threatening his junior counterparts and accusing them of leaking 'military secrets'.

But branding the revelations by the five army whistle blowers as an act of traitors is totally ridiculous. If anything, they should be called patriots for upholding the truth and for revealing the extensive rot in our electoral system. They should in fact be accorded military protection for their heroic acts.

Last line of defence for the people in the event of unscrupulous regimes

The armed forces is seen as the last bastion of defence in this country, and should all else fail the people will welcome a military takeover of the nation or simply called a ‘coup d’etat’ in the event that unscruplous leaders and regimes overtake the country. But sad to say, Malaysians are not likely to be able to rely on their armed forces to shield them from such harm or to defend the nation.

Many nations in the past have seen their armies stage a coup to unseat a despotic regime, taking on the temporary role of maintaining some form of government until fresh elections are held to return the power to the people. Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines have seen such coup attempts before, even though not all have been successful. We sincerely hope that Malaysia never has to experience such an event, as we believe that in the end, the truth will prevail - even amongst the BN and their supporters.

Many Malaysians have commented that the extent of corruption in the ranks of Malaysia's government from the PM downwards to the lower-level officers must be mind-blowing for the rot to spread all the way to the armed forces, one of the nation's institutional pillars of democracy. This is really saddening and warrants a total revamp of government.

The armed Forces should not hide the truth to protect the wrong. Nobody with a conscience and the fear of God would cover such malpractices as corrutpion and electoral fraud. It is also called cheating. One wonders now, could it have been possible for the Opposition to secure 90 per cent of the vote in the 2008 election if such fraud had not occured?

The police force too has lost much of its credibility due to perceived bias towards the ruling party at the expense of the people. So, it would be most disappointing to know that the Armed Forces of Malaysia is also losing its independence.

- Malaysia Chronicle