His name may be Maximus, but he was no match for Ambiga

What in the first place, one wonders, would possess Maximus Ongkili to think he could force Ambiga Sreenivasan, the Bersih chairman, to appear in her own capacity before his parliamentary committee?

Maximus had earlier said that Ambiga could not represent Bersih as it was a ‘banned’ organization. Maximus appears not to understand that it is no longer possible for the BN government to ban organizations based on their own narrow political agenda. Nobody is interested in Hishamuddin Hussein’s opinions on what is objectionable and what is not.

In the event, Ambiga insisted that she was representing Bersih, and Maximus was forced to allow her to speak. The alternative would have been a walkout by Ambiga and Bersih, which would have fatally discredited Maximus’s committee. For without the participation of Bersih or worse, Bersih’s condemnation, the PSC would have been reduced to a motley collection of mediocre BN MPs.

It is a clear sign of Bersih’s influence among Malaysians, that the BN no longer dares risk an open confrontation with it.

Cynical attempt

Ambiga was allowed to speak as were several of her colleagues for two hours or so. Whether this will all actually lead to something is another question. BN can at any time choose to call the election and the PSC will not survive the dissolution of the house. Even if the PSC finishes its work in 6 months, there is the more critical issue of implementing its recommendations.

It is very unlikely that the Election Commission, little more than a BN agency, will honestly implement reforms that would lead to free and fair elections. For in free and fair elections, the BN would lose and it would lose badly.

The entire PSC on Election Reform is without doubt a cynical attempt into trying to make the people believe that the BN intends to reform the election process. Instead, they will call for elections before it finishes its work.

Until today, Najib refuses to commit to holding elections only after the PSC completes its work. Yet, it was Najib himself who was responsible for setting it up. So why would Najib set up a PSC and the not allow it to complete its work? To mislead and fool the electorate, obviously.

Joker in the Pack

The BN’s PSC members include P Kamalanathan, the winner of one of the filthiest, and neither free nor fair by-elections in Malaysian history. We can only assume that the BN included his name in the committee as a joke, and then forgot to take him out.

Touted as the class dunce by his schoolmates, even his ‘degree’ is now disputed. Only an imbecile would come out with a list of demands on free and fair elections and direct it to a committee in which he was sitting to evaluate such lists and demands.

Even, worse, he appeared to have copied the whole thing from Bersih’s eight-point demand! To give him credit where it is due, we will acknowledge that he wins the prize for the most dull, annoying tweets in the entire ‘Newsmakers’ list.

Stopping the overseas vote

Meanwhile, the MCA, an atrophying limb of the BN led by the morally corrupt Chua Soi Lek, has come out strongly against allowing Malaysians overseas to vote.

Since a significant number of overseas Malaysians are ethically Chinese, it may seem strange that the MCA, a party purportedly dedicated to protecting the interests of the Malaysian Chinese community, should deny them their right to vote.

The MCA does this because it knows the overseas Chinese will not vote for it or the BN, very much like the locally residing Chinese, who will also not vote for it. The MCA is now dependent on Malay Umno supporters to survive. They should really rededicate themselves to looking after the interests of Umno Malays, who are, after all, their true vote-bank.

Most rigged and dirty ever election

Malaysia has never had free and fair elections under the BN and it never will. In 2008, free and fair elections would have buried the BN; they only survived on phantom voters , false postal votes, forced votes (in the uniformed services), and in Sarawak and Sabah, wholesale, unsubtle election rigging.

We can conclude that the BN government in Malaysia today is therefore an illegitimate one without the people’s mandate. Like a giant leech, the BN clings on to Malaysia, greedily sucking the lifeblood out of the Malaysian economy and its institutions.

The BN will not be satisfied until it has made a lifeless corpse out of the country; bereft of its last drop of petroleum, its land poisoned by projects like Lynas, in unmanageable debt, with a worthless currency, and its people bewildered paupers.

This cynical farce that is the PSC on election reform will go on until Najib Razak, or Muhyiddin Yassin (if he succeeds in winning the on-going Umno power struggle and takes over Najib’s place before that), dissolves Parliament (and the PSC along with it) and calls for the 13th General Election.

At which point, you may look forward to the most rigged and the dirtiest election in Malaysia’s history, courtesy of the duplicitous Barisan Nasional.

Malaysia Chronicle