Bersih 3.0 unnecessary? But Najib can't afford not to cheat at the polls

I wish to qualify my statement, after reading Home Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein’s response to BERSIH 3.0 in parliament today. Hishammuddin said that the Bersih 3.0 rally can proceed in the spirit of the new Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.

It is good that the minister has finally learnt that, if the government continues to fight the civil society, it will spell the doom of Barisan National. Already the coalition has been in power for far too long – any ordinary person, upon reaching 55, would have gone into retirement.

Scandals galore

One scandal after another has been uncovered by the Pakatan, thanks to people like Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Mat Sabu, but there are more questions than answers to these scandals. Billions of Ringgit have gone into a blackhole.

The Bumiputra scandal, the Perwaja scandal, the PKFZ scandal, the NFC cowgate scandal, the copgate scandal, the Amangate scandal, scandals involving Taib Mahmud (MB of Sarawak), the inhumane death of Altantuya, the missing jet engines, Lynas issue, Project IC in Sabah (and what appears to be happening also in Peninsular Malaysia with the 6P programme – the list goes on.

As reported by college lecturer, Dr Ong Kian Meng, another 100,000 dubious voters have been discovered in the electoral roll, on top of the other ones reported by the political parties. Totalling up, it is a whopping figure of 400,000 dubious voters detected in the existing electoral roll. Dr Ong is quoted saying, “This could be just the tip of the iceberg.” Even Mimos, as an independent party, had uncovered some 200,000 dubious voters.

Dr M's gerrymandering legacy

The current Election machinery, since the gerry meandering done by former prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is skewed towards helping Barisan Nasional retain a simple majority without any difficulty. During the GE 12 in 2008, it took only 18% of the voters to help BN to remain in power at Putrajaya. These voters in small parliamentary seats are the kingmakers because they determine the future of the country, delivering more than 112 seats to BN. Despite public pressure, the redelineation of constituencies has not been carried out to address the imbalance in number of voters per constituency.

Unless there is a 100% voters turnout on the polling day, where the young and old alike, are taking their votes seriously, it would be impossible to topple the BN government. This is what the Rakyat has to understand the reason why Datuk Ambiga Sreenasan and Datuk Pak Samad Said, both co-chairpersons of Bersih 2.0, called for the Sit Down Protest.

Go beyond sit-down protest

I urge Bersih 3.0 Steering Committee to go beyond the sit-down protest. The participants in the Bersih 3.0 should be encourage to attend voter education provided by civil society groups such as Tindak Malaysia and equip themselves to serve as election watchdogs during the polling day. They should come ready with both video and still cameras to capture anything that could later be used as evidence to show that cheating has taken place.

At this juncture, it is unlikely that the present government under Najib, and the Election Commission in particular, will voluntarily clean up the electoral roll with the help of independent representatives from Bersih steering committee. In the first place, the Election Commission continues to operate as though the call by Bersih steering committee to resign did not exist.

Always trying to confuse the rakyat

Najib, knowing that he has to depend on the EC to win the coming General Election, has chosen to remain silent, but his silence is not golden. In fact, his silence and the flip flop in the way he handled Bersih 2.0 is a clear indication of his weakness as a leader. He has at best shown himself to be untrustworthy and trying to confuse the rakyat over his real motives. The Jalan Sultan MRT controversy is a good example.

Najib no longer talks about his favourite slogan, “People first.” If he had remained true to his words, BERSIH 3.0 would not be necessary. I repeat, Bersih 3.0 is unnecessary, IF the government under prime minister, Najib Razak is listening to the voice of the rakyat, as spelt out by the Bersih 3.0 steering committee.

- MAILBAG