The only reason I am writing this is because a healthy democracy translates into better economic climate within a country. There is no country in the world that prosperous economically without a full fledged democratic system in place. The most damning argument set forth about free and fair elections in Malaysia is that the opposition has won a sizable and record number of 82 seats and 5 state governments during the 2008 general elections. It is the same as claiming that smoking does not causes lung cancer because most smokers are still healthy. Just like how nicotine gradually damages your lungs, electoral fraud slowly damages the health of a country's democracy. BERSIH started out as the Joint Action Committee for Electoral Reform, which was formed in July 2005, and the coalition’s objective was to push for a thorough reform of the electoral process in Malaysia. The movement has since grown up to the historic day of 28 April 2012 which saw more than 250,000 Malaysians standing up as a united front to demand for CLEAN and FAIR elections.
A good electoral roll must include all citizens who are eligible to vote and nobody else. As of March 2012, 3 million eligible citizens had yet to be registered as voters. To add on we have many names that are not supposed to be on the roll which includes; illegal foreigners, the deceased, multiple-registered voters and fabricated names. The EC claimed that problematic registrations are only 42,051 names / 12 million registered voters. What people do not realised is that this 0.03% is VERY significant. Consider the 2008 general elections, BN's weakest 30 seats were won with very small margins, smallest being 51 votes in Sarikei and 3,070 in Stampin. If you add these 30 weakest seats together the amount would be 56,792. By using calculation if those problematic registrations were to vote for the opposition/disappear, it would be enough to win 25 more seats, just 5 seats short of causing regime change!
Demand 2: Reform postal ballot
Also known as absentee voting which is mostly synonym with military and police votes. Overseas voters who are eligible to vote on postal ballot does not matter in this case simply because of the short period to transport the postal votes due to short campaign period. E.g. postal ballots are issued only 4 days before polling, those posted overseas and expect it to return to the Returning Officer by post would most probably never even make it. In addition to that, if a postal voter were to return when elections are called they are not eligible to vote at the polling station but need to take a flight back to wait for his ballot to arrive there. Simply nonsense.
Demand 3: Use of inedible ink
A simple and cost effective way of preventing voter fraud. Once marked an observer would immediately know that person has voted for.
Demand 4: Minimum 21 days of campaign period
This also links to Demand 2 because for overseas voting to work, logistics has to be taken into account. A minimum of 21 days would provide enough gap between nomination and polling for oversea voters to cast their votes through postal means. In current regulation, it stipulates a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 54 days. But if you take into account the 16 by elections in Malaysia from 2008-2011, the average is indeed short, just ranging from 8 days to the max of 11 days. Even the 2008 general election, it was only 8 days while our first national election was 42 days! A longer period would allow voters more time to gather information and also to provide candidates time to reach the rural folks.
Demand 5: Free and fair access to media
Three keys points: Free airtime allocated/non-discriminatory access for ALL contesting parties. Televised debates a common thing in developed democracies are not even aired once. Lastly there must be right of reply (for defensive reasons) for politicians who have been negatively reported. As you know non of these exist on any of our state-owned broadcast media and state-owned radio channels.
Demand 6: Strengthen public institutions
All public institutions must remain neutral. Ministers can campaign for their parties or colleagues but they cannot be doing so using the resources of the government. Government functions and party functions must be held separately. The spending spree of the Federal and State governments can be seen from both side of the political divide again more prominently on BN's side. In Sibu, Sarawak BN promised RM37 million worth of projects. Batang Ai, Sarawak; BN promised RM200 million of instant development grant. In Kelantan, PAS dished out land titles faster than McD's Big Macs. Police personnel were also misused. In Batang Ai, 850 personnel were deployed for a constituency of only 8006 voters. A 1:10 ratio and there were flown in using helicopters! (another form of abuse of official resources).
Demand 7: Stop corruption
Campaign finance is capped at RM200,000 for parliamentary candidate and RM100,000 for state contestant from the Election Offenses Act 1954. Say a 20 days campaign period, one would only have RM10,000 and RM5,000 per day to spend. But the act has 2 major loopholes, first the accounting is on a candidate level, so the party can spend on his/her behalf. Second, contributions from kind/labour and donations to their supporters are not accounted. This simply means the elections are largely a game of money. Holding treats, free dinners, lucky draws, dancing shows, election goodies, outright vote buying and the etc are also considered bribery. This is prevalent more so on BN but also can be seen from the opposition parties. And the most famous being this video which went viral:
Demand 8: Stop dirty politics
Instead of discussing core issues, politics in Malaysia are marred by personal attacks also known as gutter politics. No further explanation needed just read the daily news.
Additional demand from Bersih 3.0. They are more specific in nature and does not need further explanation:
Demand 9: The Election Commission must resign, as it has failed in its responsibility and has lost the confidence of the public.
Demand 10: The electoral process must be cleaned before the 13th General Elections.
Demand 11: Invite international observers to observe the 13th General Elections.
Sources:
Largely taken from the book Democracy At Stake? Examining 16 By-elections in Malaysia 2008-2011. Only RM30 and can be finished in a day (255 pages).
http://gbgerakbudaya.com/2012/09/democracy-at-stake-examining-16-by-election-in-malaysia-2008-2011/
Other reading:
It's not just protest, it's progress. Najib, wake up laaaa: http://aboiwealthpot.blogspot.com/2012/04/its-not-just-protest-its-progress-najib.html
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