DAP gives thumbs up to Bersih 3.0

By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 05, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 – The DAP formally voiced its support today for Bersih’s third rally for free and fair elections this April 28, agreeing with the group that the Parliamentary Select Committee’s (PSC) electoral reform proposals were inadequate.

Its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said in a statement here that the PSC’s report, approved in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday, had shown a “serious lack of commitment” to addressing fundamental issues of electoral irregularities, which was the panel’s main objective.

“Given the lack of commitment to provide a clean electoral [roll] so that the next general election is free and fair, the DAP fully supports Bersih 3.0’s call to gather at Merdeka Square from 2pm to 4pm on April 28.

The DAP also reiterates its support for the full implementation of Bersih 2.0’s eight demands, out of which only one – the use of indelible ink – was sufficiently addressed in the PSC report,” Lim (picture) said in the statement.

Bersih 2.0 had amassed a crowd of thousands for its second rally last July 9, demanding the government accede to its eight demands for free and fair elections, including the cleaning of the electoral roll; reforms to postal voting; the use of indelible ink; free and fair access to media; a minimum 21-day campaign period; the strengthening of public institutions; a stop to political corruption; and an end to “dirty” politics.

It announced yesterday the date for “Bersih 3.0”, complaining that the PSC’s reforms were grossly inadequate and warranted the need for another such rally, this time to be held on a larger scale – at locations nationwide and worldwide.

The PSC had submitted a 22-point proposal in Parliament on Tuesday but the Dewan Rakyat Speaker rejected an application by the panel’s three Pakatan Rakyat (PR) members to include a minority report along with it.

The minority report was to detail the views of the trio, who had rejected four of the 22 recommendations put forward.

The opposition lawmakers had also complained that the PSC had not been thorough in its recommendations as it had failed to touch on specific issues of electoral discrepancies such as irregularities found in the current electoral roll.

“The DAP strongly objects to the failure on the part of the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat to disallow the introduction of a minority report, which documents some of the major problems affecting the electoral roll.

“The most serious shortcoming of this report is the refusal to highlight fundamental flaws in the electoral roll. Abuses of the electoral roll have increased since the March 2008 general election and more evidence has been uncovered by various groups,” Lim said today.

The Penang Chief Minister also agreed with Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee who said yesterday that the PSC had only made a “nominal nod” in the direction of conducting a more comprehensive review of the electoral roll.

“Efforts by MIMOS to only examine addresses with more than 50 voters registered in them ignore the many other potential areas of manipulation and errors which exist within the electoral roll,” the latter had said.