AN electoral reform pressure group will be uploading the embargoed redelination report on its website, in defiance of a directive by Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia.
Wong Chin Huat, a member of Engage said, it will upload the more than 1000-page report on its website in the next few hours.
“This is report is crucial for all Malaysians to read because what is being done in the redelineation process is not right.
“The report should be scrapped because the inquiry processes in the report was a complete sham,” he said at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall today.
Wong said that the report should be up on the website within the next hour.
“After this press conference, I will go to Parliament and pay my RM1,000 fine.
“I am breaking the law consciously and respectfully for all Malaysians so they will be able to view the report,” he declared.
The EC’s report was issued to MPs on Thursday but lawmakers are barred from releasing or distributing it before it is debated and endorsed by Parliament tomorrow.
Pandikar had said the document, which is available only to MPs, cannot be distributed or published until it is tabled by the government.
“Why is the report is under embargo as it will affect the future of all Malaysians for the next two elections.
“The powers that be don’t want Malaysians to know (the content before their MPs vote on it tomorrow) so I feel compelled to reveal what I have learned from studying through the two volumes of the reports.
“Malaysians needs to know some of the alarming and disastrous implications of this proposal.”
Wong said he violated Section 9 of the House of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act by releasing the report.
He also called on all parliamentarians to vote against the report.
Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali had said Pandikar’s decision to embargo the report is a betrayal to democracy.
The Gombak MP said the redelineation proposal for Peninsular Malaysia had been displayed to the public in one form or another over the past 18 months.
“There is no valid reason that the speaker of Parliament should withhold the final report from the public since it directly affects their democratic right to elect representatives to Parliament.
“Withholding this is nothing more than an act of sheer arbitrariness,” he said.
MEANWHILE, according to Malaysiakini:
Political analyst Wong Chin Huat has broken the Dewan Rakyat’s embargo on the Election Commission’s redelineation proposal report during a public forum today.
Wong said he was compelled to do so because the contents of the report would have “disastrous” implications.
“I am going to break the law for the sake of this country.
“The report is under embargo…(because) there are a lot of things that perhaps the EC and the powers that be don’t want Malaysians to know, before their MPs vote on it tomorrow.
“So I feel compelled to reveal what I have learnt… Malaysians need to know some of the alarming and disastrous implications of this proposal,” he said.
He said he will also release the EC’s report in full on NGO Engage’s website.
The proposal was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat last Thursday but Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia placed an embargo n on the contents which expired tomorrow.
Wong added that he will present himself to the Parliament later today and pay the RM1,000 fine for violating the embargo, in accordance with Section 9 of the House of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952.
The forum in Kuala Lumpur today was titled “How Malaysia’s elections are being stolen” and discussed the EC’s proposal at length.
THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT / MKINI
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