A dirty election on the roll

From April 28 last year to the polling day on May 5, the Election Commission (EC) is still indulging in rogue activities.

It is very obvious now that Najib Tun Razak, head of the caretaker government, is being high-handed and arrogant in ignoring the citizens’ call for free and fair elections as he is not doing anything about the irregularities committed by the EC.

April 28 marks the first anniversary of the Bersih 3.0 rally and May 5 is the date of polling for the 13th general election, thus from “428” to “505” the shenanigans is still ongoing.

How then can the rakyat use the system to beat the system?

In Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu there are altogether 900 people named Fatimah Ismail. They live close to each other and have the same birthdates. This means that two men named Ismail living in the same village had a daughter on the same day and named their daughter Fatimah. This is too great a coincidence!

Besides Fatimah Ismail, there were three voters going by the unusual name of Ab Rapar Awang sharing the same birthdate of July 15, 1949. Two of them are registered to vote in the parliamentary seat of Indera Mahkota in Pahang while the third will be voting in the neighbouring parliamentary seat of Paya Besar, also in Pahang.

Sabah, Penang and Sarawak have the highest number of voters over the age of 100. Sabah has 1,062 centenarians, Penang has over 800 and Sarawak has 475. The average age that the Sabah centenarians who made the effort to register for voting is 84. Certainly they seem to be very energetic and active.

The oldest individual is born in Penang in 1897 (currently 116 years of age) followed by an individual born in Perak in 1898.

All the above information was furnished by Lee Wee Tak who is a research assistant with the Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (MERAP), which is a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

There is nothing but hanky-panky going on between the EC and the National Registration Department (NRD). All these dirty works must have been given the green light by Najib whose credibility is now highly in doubt.

No clean-up work done at all

This shows that polls watchdog Bersih was right all along. The electoral roll is extremely dirty and still continues to be dirty. No clean-up was done at all.

It all just goes to show that the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) set up by Najib to look into the electoral process is nothing but a farce designed to hoodwink the citizens.

That is the reason why in the beginning Pakatan Rakyat MPs were reluctant to be part of the PSC. Even the minority report presented by Pakatan members (Hatta Ramli, Azmin Ali and Anthony Loke Siew Fook) in the PSC has been totally ignored.

“Najib will be facing the wrath of the rakyat if he is not careful. No one likes to be cheated and what the EC is doing is cheating the rakyat en masse, which is unprecedented in Malaysian history.

“And the fast-tracked citizenship being given to the low-skilled foreign workers in exchange for votes clearly indicates who is the traitor to the nation and the rakyat,” said former Perak menteri besar Nizar Jamaluddin of PAS.

The rakyat who have access to the alternative media and know about these shenanigans will never believe anymore in Najib and vote for BN.

Therefore even before April 20 (nomination day), there has been difficulty in accessing the online news portals.

This columnist who uses the Internet in the cyber-cafe has since mid-April been encountering slow downloading (browser-checking) before the FMT website appears on the screen.

Clearly, BN leaders are now shaking in fear and are pulling out all stops to prevent losing power and the first move will be to prevent the rakyat from getting correct information.

“Malaysia is not a thriving or vibrant democracy. What we have now is ‘a controlled democracy’. Therefore Najib cannot claim to be a moderate leader nor a true democrat,” said Nizar.

Even the mainstream media is now 100% controlled by BN, more so now that the campaign period is in full swing. Najib wants to control the minds and choice of the citizens through coercion, gifts and falsehood.

An example of this took place on April 20 just after the nomination papers have been filed when a local television news channel broadcast a top-ranked Umno leader announcing that the PAS candidate in the state seat of Senggarang in Johor had his nomination papers rejected by the election officer and therefore Umno has got off to a good start by winning one seat uncontested.

This Umno leader also made fun of the PAS candidate for “failing to fill in his forms correctly”. However upon checking, this news turned out to be false when the PAS candidate Ramli Kari has been confirmed as contesting in Senggarang without any problems whatsoever.

This is a very clear indication that BN leaders always engage in falsehood to dupe the rakyat.

However this columnist wishes to inform them that the nomination day on April 20 is the birthday of the late Teoh Beng Hock and May 6 (a day after polling) is the birthday of the late Altantuya Shaariibuu. This is the sign of the times. May 5 is coming and so are they.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.