Pakatan declares polls reform panel a failure

By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 02, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) representatives in the government-mooted parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reforms complained today the panel had failed to meet its objectives, despite six months of heated discussions and at least six public hearings.

The members, Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak), Hatta Ramli (PAS-Kuala Krai) and Anthony Loke (DAP-Rasah), told a press conference here that the bipartisan panel had fallen short of expectations as it had completely neglected to address “fundamental issues” surrounding concerns over the country’s election system.

Key among these, said Azmin, was the call to clean up the current voter registry, which civil society groups and PR leaders have alleged are fraught with discrepancies.

The trio said today they have filed a motion notice with the Dewan Rakyat Speaker’s office under Standing Order 30(1) calling for amendments to be made to the PSC’s final report.

“This is so the Speaker can take note of our intention to amend the motion to be tabled on the PSC report, to attach a minority report to it,” Azmin said.

When asked for PR’s next plan of action should its motion be rejected, Azmin declined to comment, expressing confidence that Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia would give fair consideration to the proposal.

“Because this is an important motion… I am confident the Speaker will give a positive response.

“So we can debate this motion before the PSC report is tabled,” said Hatta.

The PSC’s 22-point report, which comprises its final recommendations for electoral reforms in Malaysia, was distributed to all members of the House today but it has been placed under strict embargo until 11.30am tomorrow when it is tabled for debate.

The nine-member committee had sat for its final meeting last Wednesday but ended a five-hour discussion in disagreement when those across the political divide were forced to “agree to disagree” on several key issues.

Bersih 2.0 recently warned of a possible “Bersih 3.0 rally” should the Najib administration fail to implement meaningful reforms to the country’s electoral process. — file pic
“What we are disappointed about is that on March 28, the panel held its final meeting to finalise its recommendations in the final report but it did not take into account the views of our members to include a minority report that will give a more detailed explanation of the fundamental issues involving the electoral roll, which the Election Commission (EC) has yet to clean,” said Azmin.

He reiterated that the panel’s members from PR had already presented much documented evidence showing discrepancies in the voter registry, which the EC has yet to address.

“We, on behalf of PR, were a part of the committee, we tried our level best to push for total reform in the electoral process.

“Unfortunately, this committee has failed to look at the entire proposal by civil society and individuals in preparing the final report… yes, they addressed some issues but they are not among the fundamental issues,” he said.

Apart from the electoral roll discrepancies, disgruntled PSC sources had last week also railed against the panel’s failure to address other key requests for reforms such as the scrapping of the postal voting system, ensuring free and fair access to the media and an extension of the election campaign period to up to 21 days.

These requests were among those proposed to the government by election watchdog Bersih 2.0, which last year organised a mammoth rally on the capital’s streets to demand free and fair polls.

The PSC was mooted shortly after the chaotic rally, which saw over a thousand arrests and even one death, when the Najib administration earned widespread criticism in the foreign media for its allegedly high-handed approach when cracking down on the event.

Bersih 2.0 recently warned of a possible “Bersih 3.0 rally” should the administration fail to implement meaningful reforms to the country’s electoral process before the 13th general election is called. PR lawmakers have voiced their support for such an event.

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21 Replies to “Pakatan declares polls reform panel a failure”

  1. ///yes, they addressed some issues but they are not among the fundamental issues,” he said.///

    If BN were to address the fundamental issues, it will lose badly in GE13.

    Bersih 3.0 is the answer!

  2. Bersih 3.0 is a must! It is clear that the EC is under control by UMNO to cheat in the coming GE13. That is the reason why EC doesn’t want to clean up the electoral roll which is full of UMNO phantom voters, in the thousands expecially in constituencies UMNO wants to recapture from PR. Najip is getting more desperate by the day and will cheat in any way that he can to win the election.

  3. Whilst the PM gloats in self praise for his purported 69% self-activated popularity poll only as a direct consequence of his dishing out millions of ringgits just a little while before, the same cannot be said about the rakyat’s no-confidence in PSC and it actually being capable of discharging its primary duties with utmost integrity and regard for civil society.

    When you have self righteous and arbitrary leaders of UMNO like Nazri who so vocally dismiss calls for impartial bipartisan committee to oversee the electoral reforms and the likes of our beloved Royal Court Jester Muhyideen stating that Bersih 3.0 is useless, what can we realistically expect when the UMNO/BN influenced PSC comprise merely 3 albeit capable representatives of the Opposition?

    The rakyat is no longer in slumber of what deceit and dirty tactics that are expected to be unleashed by the one culprit that needs no mention-no matter how fraudulent GE13 can get, UMNO BN’s destiny is sealed and doomed with no hope for resurrection. This is indeed glorious news! Why? Because the power of democracy is indeeforge formidable and unshakeable force of thenpeople’s wants and demands that can never be overthrown by mere personal greed of stubborn quarters who eventually run out of what little creative ideas they can manufactfe to deceive, mock, tease and insult the very masses of people who once put them on power. UMNO BN mentality and autocracy is expired. Never ever also should one forget that there is a promise for the unrighteous, corrupted and unrepentant leaders who serve only their bellies rather than the rakyat – to be removed either by the rakyat by grace, or by God by mercy.

    The Opposition must continue to think 3 steps ahead of UMNO BN’s every conniving and scheming tactics in order to brace itself against and to overcome all threats and challenges that will be unleashed. PR should keep up the exposes to kill BN softly and BN should continue with its leaders making a mockery of themselves on national TV by flaunting their low mentality and wisdom and this should make every voter in Malaysia just ‘do what they have to do’. Fence sitters will also get off and scurry to where hope and a promise of a better Malaysia free from corruption, injustice and decayed government is in store!

    Rejoice!

  4. Ya, looks like we have to face water cannons and tear gas again.

    BERSIH 3.0 for a better Malaysia

    We need to change the tenant at Putrajaya. GE 13 is coming, but looks like a dirty GE 13, so we must Bersih-kan GE 13. Let us all get ready.
    Change we must. Change we can.
    For a better Malaysia

  5. UmnoB/BN r RUNAWAY corrupt SERVANTS who r abusing voters’ or BOSSES’ trust on them by rigging d election process 2 consolidate their illegal stay of power
    RAKYAT/VOTERS: time 2 SAY NO 2 UmnoB/BN, kick them out, JUST DO IT

  6. Honestly PR faces a very critical problem. The state of their contest with UMNO-Perkasa/BN is what I call ‘he says, she says’. As far as critical marginal voters are concern, they get confused when issues get complicated – they respond mostly to simple, like their dumb tv shows of reality tvs and soap opera

    BUT UMNO-Perkasa/BN has been able to thwart PR’s attempts such as these real issues and even Anwar’s populist magic, by making claims and counter claims that complicates and confuses the issues.

    In a state of lack of clarity, UMNO-Perkasa/BN wins – that is the unfortunate unfair, even extremely, advantage of the incumbent in Malaysia.

  7. //Pakatan declares polls reform panel a failure//

    Is this news? and so un-expected?

    This is never a fair world, never will. Laws are always interpreted for client’s advantage, contract always written as lopsided as possible to client’s advantage and the mechanism is tweaked to client’s advantage. Accept this fact, live with it or fight it!

    No free lunch! There is always a price to pay, the question is how much and who is calling the price?. Reforms! That is big deal, a deal which can cost the seller their government position. RM500, EC reforms, DJZ’s demands, … all those are deals of election. The buyer market is only few months prior to election, after which is all seller market. Who call for the price? always the seller.

    No free lunch, there is always a price to pay along the line, when and how much is all by the seller, unless you change the seller.

  8. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/do-you-trust-idris-lucius-goon/

    According to PEMANDU, in 2011 Malaysia achieved the highest GDP since 1957 with RM94 billion, generating a GNI of RM852 billion.

    In 2008 the BN government said that international trade had crossed the RM1 trillion mark. And that economic growth for 2007 was the highest since 2004.

    Waaa… billions and trillions! Then why are there millions of poor families clamouring for the RM500 BR1M?

  9. Najip said he has delivered? Delivered what? Najip only delivered lies so far! Fighting corruption by asking companies to sign corporate integrity pledge? Any company can also sign, NFC can also sign, so what? Corruption starts from Najip and UMNO. So, to get rid of corruption, we must get rid of najip and UMNO first! ABU!

  10. Aiyah when the last rambutan dropped and rolled no further than 10 ft from where it landed, that was good enough verdict for umno to adopt and thereby to declare the electoral reform a complete success and the resulting laws the best in the world.

    End of story any further questions by anyone would amount to anti-agung, anti-sultan, anti-gobermen, anti-melayu (actually anti-umnoputras), anti-islam jenis umno, unpatriotic, ungrateful; be regarded as acts of communism and terrorism and may result in revocation of one’s citizenship or even arrest under the ISA.

    Talk some more and umno will bring in three millions more indons and give them IC to vote. So shut up!

  11. Isn’t it a real surprise to know that a military-ruled country like Myanmar can be so much more democratic than Malaysia?What it tells you if one would compare with Ajib’s best democracy?People in Myanmr walk the talk but Ajib kor only know how to talk co#k.I can see we are moving backward towards the era of feudal age where ‘suppresion and oppression’ is the key survival for tyrants to stay in power.Enough is enough! Bersih 3.0 is definitely a must!

  12. If the polls reform is a success….UMNO b will fail miserably in coming 13th GE.
    It is successfully failing it..with all sorts of excuses and stunts…that Najib can have a glimpse of hope…that the arranged phantoms will give give some miraculous wins in certain constituency like Pekan…for example.

  13. Speaking of the reform initiatives by the burmese military government, it is worth noting that like umno the burmese government is equally power crazy and super greedy. And how come the burmese military government is prepared to loosen its grip on power. Dont forget. Man who depends on canons and guns for authority do not loosen his control on authority that easily. But why are the burmese military doing it now? Two reasons. (1) The burmese government is actually cleverer than umnoputras. This is obvious. (2) The burmese military recognised and acknowledged the fact that the might of the people is more powerful than guns and canons.

  14. EC is a tool of UMNO b party.
    He has to perform like a snake to keep his cozy job..with so many fringe benefits …exactly like the so call “Mr.Speaker” in Parliament.
    These people are RACISTS….and will never change.

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