Indelible ink: First blood to the people in the GE-13 Mother of All Battles

If you are confused at the whole issue of the use of indelible ink, than you are not the only one. It seems the Attorney General and the Election Commission of Malaysia are equally as confused, if not as dumb-founded as every other Malaysian. Or perhaps, the AG and EC are just plain dumb?

The A-G finally cleared the way for the use of indelible ink, something that most of us had known was legislatively possible, but which he had insisted was not - stumping even the BN parliamentarians with his insistence that using indelible ink would require changes to the Constitution.

Indelible ink - the 2nd try

On June 2, 2007, the Election Commission made public the proposed use of indelible ink to mark participating voters at polling stations, and its use was even officially confirmed by the Commission's chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman on August 13, 2007. Its introduction was a measure to preclude electoral fraud by preventing duplicate votes, and would mark the first time indelible ink was to be used in a Malaysian general election.

Members of BN were more critical, with UMNO secretary-general Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, MCA secretary-general Ong Ka Chuan and Gerakan vice-president Teng Hock Nan proposing the use of other systems, such as a fingerprint-based biometrics system, as alternatives.

Four days before the 2008 general election, the EC decided to scrap the use of indelible ink, citing public order and security issues. Abdul Rashid said that legally, the commission cannot bar a person whose fingernail has been marked with the ink or one who refuses to have his or her nail marked, from casting their vote.

The Commission chair also claimed intelligence concerning possible conspiracies to undermine the electoral process by applying ink to the fingers of those who had not yet voted, and said it would be best to refrain from adopting the measure for the sake of public order and security. According to the Election Commission, the decision to cancel the use of indelible ink was based on reports that certain parties had tried to "sabotage" the election process in Kedah, Kelantan and Perlis. The police then arrested several persons for trying to smuggle indelible ink through neighboring Thailand.

"The Federal Constitution gives you the right to vote, and a black mark on your fingernail should not bar you from exercising this right," he was quoted as saying. Obviously, the EC chairman failed to point out that a person’s finger is marked only after being checked against the electoral roll and upon confirmation of receiving the ballot paper. The mark then bars him from voting a second time - which is exactly what indelible ink is for - to stop multiple voting by a single individual for the purpose of defrauding the people of Malaysia.

Sensitive to Muslims

The government also had other reasons, citing among them that it could be a sensitive issue for Muslims. Again, this turned out to be another big joke and created more accusations Malaysia was being run by 'fools'.

"For Muslims, when they pray, they have to wash their face, hands and feet and the water must touch their skin. With indelible ink, the water will not be able to touch the skin and Muslims will not be able to perform their prayers," said the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz.

The National Fatwa Council, which issues religious edicts, had to be brought in to give its stamp of approval. After undergoing a chemical analysis, "according to the study, the ink, which is indelible, does not contain unclean elements, is not water resistant or impervious to water and does not contain harmful substances for use on the thumb or nail," the council's chairman Abdul Shukor Husin said. Thus, the religious spin to the reason for denying the use of indelible ink was also found to be comically wanting.

Yet, the then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak found the reversal "appropriate", citing concerns that people would be misled into applying similar-looking ink onto their fingers and denying themselves the right to vote. So hilarious for a DPM to demean himself into spinning a tale concocted by the EC - all for the purpose of denying voters the use of indelible ink.

Turned out to be lies

Then in May 2008, a month after general elections, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar told Parliament in his written response to a question from Fong Po Kuan that "there was no evidence at all to show the ink was smuggled in from Thailand. From the witness statements, no individual, syndicate or any particular party was identified to be involved in this. The complainant and witness' statement were based on hearsay and no individual was identified positively."

And so, the BN lies were unraveled. From the very beginning of this saga, there was really no reason not to use the 47,000 bottles of the ink from India, bought at a cost of over 2 million ringgit during the 2008 elections.

And this is further supported by the AG's statement before the Parliamentary Select Committee that only a minor change in electoral regulations was required to implement the key demand by polls reform movement Bersih 2.0. According to panel member Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, the change to Rule 19 of the Election (Conduct of Election) Regulations 1981 can “be done anytime” and only requires the approval of the Yang diPertuan Agong before Parliament is notified.

First step

So it is clear, the AG and the EC were out to scam the people of Malaysia and to stump the election process within Malaysia. Collaborating the process were members of BN, who seemed excited at the prospect that election fraud could continue to be propogated. What then can these BN parliamentarians say now that the truth is revealed?

But lest Malaysians get over-excited, indelible ink is only the first step. There are still lots more ways for the BN to cheat including vote-buying and a badly contaminated electoral roll, not to mention the already overly-excessive gerrymandering pursued and maximized by ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad and still in place till today.

Malaysia Chronicle