MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The EC is at the BN's beck and call to frustrate the Opposition

"OVER THE PAST FEW days," says the New Straits Times today (19 March 2004, p4) "more than 600,000 letters from the PM (Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) have been sent out to 'balik kampung' voters - that bloc of the electorate who reside outside their place of birth but are registered to vote in their hometowns." How did the National Front (BN) know who these voters are, if the self-proclaimed fiercely independent Election Commission did not feed that to it? It is also clear government facilities are used to send these flyers out. No political party, including the BN and its 14 component parties, could mount an exercise as this on its own in the eight days available between nomination and polling day. The BN has had much help from the government departments, its agencies and the EC. Let we forget, the EC does all it can to frustrate the Opposition. Its chairman talks of government and Opposition parties when it is clear that once Parliament and the state assemblies are dissolved, there is neither opposition nor governing parties. The prime minister is the caretaker prime minister, and the ministers mere caretakers.

One can stretch the rules to allow the prime minister his right to use official transport in the campaign, but the deputy prime minister and others cannot, indeed should not. Yet the New Straits Times has Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak photographed in "Air Force 2", the plane at the disposal of the deputy prime minister en route to an election rally. You can rest assured the EC will find creative reasons why this is allowed. But if official transport is used for election campaigning, the BN must pay for it at commercial rates. This is the practice in India, after the then Indian prime minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi, lost her parliamentary seat for using official transport for her campaign. The only practical excuse for using government transport for campaigning is to the constituency where he stands and his official functions. But during the campaign, there are no official functions, except the few he cannot wriggle out of. This use of official transport does not stop there. Every one in office, from the political secretaries to cabinent minister, make use of their official transport, with petroleum and per diem paid out of official funds, as they traverse the country on behalf of BN. The EC keeps quiet about it. As in every breach of the rules by the BN and its component parties. But the BN should pay for that use.

The EC has come up with a new rule in Putrajaya. It is a straight fight between the BN's Dato' Adnan Mansor aka Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and the National Justice Party's Abdul Rahman Othman. The NJP (KeADILan) and PAS is in an Opposition front called Barisan Alternatif (BA) but the authorities cannot yet find a valid reason why it should be registered. The two parties contest on their own logos. Two days ago, the EC refined its rules midstream: only the party logos of the candidate is allowed. All others must be removed within 24 hours. The KeADILan candidate is told of it verbally with the promise of an official letter delivered by hand. Mr Abdul Rahman got the idea this would be nation wide. But does it know what this means? The National Front is the party which contests the elections. Its 14 component parties are not, as far as the EC is concerned, parties in this election. Yet they are prominent all over the country. If the candidate is from UMNO, the UMNO logo is as prominent as the BN, if from MCA, the MCA logo, if the MIC, the MIC logo; and so on. But in the EC's books, the 14 component parties do not exist. Why does it not order the BN in Putrajaya, for a start, order that all UMNO flags and logos are removed, as PAS is ordered to?

The EC has made it its business to make this election as difficult as possible for the Opposition. After 1969, when the constitutional was grossly amended to change the direction of a multiracial Malaysia into a Malay-dominant Malaysia, the EC became UMNO's, not BN's, electoral arm to ensure it. If political parties are not allowed to help out with posters and men for its partners, then this should be for all political parties. The BN is one party, the EC should not recognise its component parties, since none of them stand for election except as BN candidates, their posters and logos should not be around. UMNO's Adnan Mansor contests not on an UMNO but on a BN ticket. If they must be around, in the EC's considered view, then so should all political parties. When the EC officer in Putrajaya telephoned Mr Abdul Rahman, he did not speak for the EC but for UMNO. Besides, the EC should have announced it boldly and publicly that it has changed the rules mid-stream. The law is constricted that one cannot challenge the EC decisions except with severe restrictions, yet the EC insists it alone does not make mistakes. What it does is only that. Those who died a decade and more ago are allowed to vote. Pak Lah sends a letter to one voter who died in 1988, but with the new identity card number that was not announced until a decade after he died, asking him to vote for BN. I am listed in my constituency twice - under my old and my new identity card. Its accuracy is severely tested.

For the electoral list to be up to date, the EC must start the process anew, build a new list from scratch, remove all traces of the old ICs, and rely only on the new. Registration must be throughout the year. The EC must update its electoral list at least once a year, and take seriously public complaints of multiple entries, and other misuse of the list. It should not spring surprises like this year when the list used is the one it released on nomination day. It fixed polling day on the same day central Selangor is blocked out for the F-1 motor race. Even if the voters wanted to vote, they would be prevented from doing so because of the pressure of the crowds. But we know why it was on that date. Pak Lah's favourite number is 13. The government wanted a short campaigning period. Ideally, the polling should have been on 13 March. That was not possible. So nomination day was on that date. And polling is fixed so it would clash with the F-1 race. When this is pointed out, voters are told to vote early. It seems to think that on election day, a voter should have no business other than to vote. The EC must ensure fair and free elections by treating all political parties fairly. It does not now. It has, like every government institution, shown itself to be no more than at the beck and call of UMNO and BN government. The right to fair and free elections does not come from the right to vote alone. What leads to it must be fair and free too, as it certainly is not in Malaysia.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com