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The Election Commission proposes, the Police disposes

THE ELECTION COMMISSION CHAIRMAN, TAN Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, in remarkable interviews with the Internet newspaper, malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com), decided to allow election rallies and distance the EC from UMNO. whose poodle it had been for years. The EC and he has much to answer for. The EC had been turned into an inhouse UMNO body to ensure the Opposition is sidelined whenever and wherever possible; its role to turn the election rules on its head so only UMNO could be returned in the centre and the states. The idea of reforms and sticking to the law sits uneasily on the EC.

UMNO worked hand in hand with the EC: the EC recently offered to accept unemployed Puteri UMNO members as temporary election assistance; now UMNO offers to help the EC clean up the electoral roll. The EC is part of an elaborate UMNO plan to issue Malaysian identity cards to those ineligible, mostly Indonesians, Filipinos, and Thais. They are not forged or faked, but genuine ones which automatically grants them citizenship and put on the electoral roll. The EC ignores the Opposition parties, whom it deals with on sufferance. The aim: to deny the Opposition a fair chance to be returned to power.

To the incredulity of politicians and Malaysians, he breaks ranks to insist on election rallies in the next general election. This shook UMNO and National Front (BN) to the core. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, snarled when he was asked about it on his return from China. The UMNO vice president, Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin, was unhappy. The UMNO Youth leader, Dato' Seri Hishamuddin Hussein, did not think it a good idea. The law minister, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, insists Malaysia has a security threat which could aggravate with election rallies. The UMNO vice president, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, said Malaysian electoral practices are accepted internationally without election rallies, and he did not see the need for it now. But should not the criteria be how Malaysians view the ban on election rallies?

UMNO, if it could, would have happily strangled Tan Sri Abdul Rashid. He managed his campaign well - it does not matter why - and the opposition welcomes it as much as UMNO and BN oppose it and insist the last word is with the police. The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai, however, agrees to election rallies, did not believe it would pose security problems, as they were not in the past, promised to allow or disallow one within 24 hours of asking for a police permit. "The police would try to be just and fair to government and opposition in processing applications," he said in a report by the Malaysian news agency, Bernama. If there is no security threat it would be issued, although the police may suggest changes in venue and impose conditions. He said: "The police would be guided by this principle in the next election." In other words, election rallies will be allowed for the first time in 34 years.

Why does BN oppose electoral rallies? It forgot how to attract crowds to its functions. As the Oppositin is adept at it. Tens of thousands would gather at the PAS headquarters in Gombak for a routine political meeting by low-level PAS speakers. But the BN president cannot attract a crowd without busing them in or paying people to attend. The recent BN rally to mark its 50th anniversary is one. Less than 10,000 turned up; as many turned up less than a kilometre away at Dataran Merdeka where singers held the crowd spellbound. If it had been at the larger Bukit Jalil Stadium, it would have been pathetic.

(Curiously, BN admits to 50,000 attended the rally of which MIC claims to have sent in 40,000. What does this tell you? That if you add the numbers each party claims to have brought, Kuala Lumpur would have seen a traffic jam never seen for a long time. But how could it with less than 10,000, mostly rent-a-crowd?)

UMNO leaders are unused to the cut and thrust of election rallies, They are more tuned to orchestrated sessions where few or no questions are asked, If some from the audience livens up the meeting with unexpected or embarrassing questions, they often walk away or the chaps escored out of the hall. They fear that at their election rallies, people would question them about their acts of commission and ommission, the rationale of government policies, and generally make a mickey out of them. Worse if Opposition supporters do that. They do not want that, and use this phantom security threat to coccoon them from the outside world.

Even the Police now decide UMNO and BN have no case. Election rallies must be held. There are other issues that must be addressed. Perhaps in future elections, they would be addressed. Why cannot the ballot boxes be of transparent bullet-proof plastic? Why should the slit through which the voter places his ballot be so large that a voter bent on mayhem could insert ten or more ballot papers in a bunch without attracting attention. Ten or more ballot papers? This is at the heart of the UMNO electoral tactic of a member in charge of ten voters, and on whose behalf he votes for them. This is illegal, but the EC would not address it. Such skullduggery at the polls could be stopped in its tracks if these changes are made. This would put a stop to UMNO attempts to deny voters from voting.

This is a much needed reform. One can understand UMNO's and BN's concerns. They have been in office since 1955, they need to continue in office to exist. The Opposition is more aggressive, the new voter, especially the young, wants BN to explain why they should vote for it, and many are unconvinced. It has gone to pieces in Kelantan and Trengganu, where PAS rules, and resort to official pettines to teach the people there a lesson. That backfires. Hubris has struck BN. Helped by the long and autocratic presence of its leader of 22 years. Like Mr Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, Dr Mahathir in Malaysia proves to the world that an autocratic governance will in the end fail. Once the rot sets in, as in Malaysia and Singapore, time will destroy what they stood for. The brilliant Mr Lee presided over Singapore's remarkable growth, and now insists on staying to preside over its fall. And so the brilliant Dr Mahathir in Malaysia.

What the EC and the Police did is not unusual. They realise that in time BN and UMNO would be forced out. They must retain their sense of neutrality then. They have to start now. Both are ignored and sidelines by Malaysians as lackeys of the establishment. If the Opposition should ever take power in Malaysia - and that is a big IF - chaos would result if the Police and EC are perceived by the new administration as irrelevant. BN and UMNO cannot accept it, and see that treachery as biting the hand that feeds them. Forty eight years in power have entrenched them in the administration. Now that entrenchment is challenged. Tan Sri Abdul Rashid and Tan Sri Norian Mai had a large role in that. But make no mistake, they did out of self-interest and not because it is right. But the reforms have begun. And this is enough to praise them for what they do for whatever reason.

[This is my column in the PAS organ, Harakah, out today, 23 September 2004]

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my