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“428” Bersih 3.0 acid test of Najib’s “political transformation” to make Malaysia “best democracy in the world” – start with immediate revocation of government ban on Bersih

The April 28 Bersih 3.0 peaceful “Duduk Bantah” rally at Dataran Merdeka for clean, free and fair elections is an acid test of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “political transformation” to make Malaysia, in his own words, “the best democracy in the world”.

In the past seven months, the Najib government had been trying to undo the damage caused by the disastrous government mishandling of the 709 Bersih 2.0 peaceful rally for free and fair elections, which saw an arrogant, ham-fisted, high-handed and mindless repression and clampdown such as the government ban on Bersih, unjustified PSM arrests under Emergency Ordinance, arbitrary arrests for wearing Bersih 2.0 T-shirts or just wearing yellow.

In his Malaysia Day message on Sept. 16 last year, Najib promised a “political transformation” with a slew of reform of undemocratic and draconian laws like the repeal of the Internal Security Act and the revocation of the four Emergency Proclamations.

At that time, I had specifically asked: “Will the replacements for the repeal or removal of repressive laws and measures result in the reincarnation of these very same draconian features in a new format, e.g. repeal of ISA but enactment of new law which could be described as ISA2?”

This is what have come to pass in the past seven months. Continue reading ““428” Bersih 3.0 acid test of Najib’s “political transformation” to make Malaysia “best democracy in the world” – start with immediate revocation of government ban on Bersih”

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Electoral roll: What else is the EC hiding?

By Ong Kian Ming | Apr 24, 2012
Malaysiakini

COMMENT In two previous articles, I highlighted 10 problems associated with the electoral roll as part of the preliminary findings of the Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project (Merap), a research effort to identify and understand problems with the existing electoral roll.

In this article, I want to highlight further problems involving far more voters than those identified in the previous two articles. [see Part 1 I Part 2]

Firstly, approximately 3.1 million voters were identified as potential non-resident voters by the National Registration Department (NRD) in 2002. This data was given by NRD to the Election Commission (EC) but no action was taken by the EC to assess the magnitude of this problem and to identify ways to rectify it.

Secondly, using the EC’s own data which lists the nationality or ‘bangsa’ of each voter, approximately 65,000 voters were identified as having foreign nationalities. Of these, close to 90 percent or 58,000 had IC numbers which indicate that they were born in Malaysia.

In addition, approximately 49,000 of these voters came from one state alone – Sabah – which has a well-documented history where ICs were given to illegal immigrants in order to allow them to register as voters.
Continue reading “Electoral roll: What else is the EC hiding?”

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‘Dubious’ voters may decide GE13

By Ong Kian Ming | Apr 8, 2012
Malaysiakini

ANALYSIS In the first part of this article, I highlighted five problems with the electoral roll which were not addressed in the report by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reform.

In this second part, I will highlight five additional problems with the electoral roll, all of which concern the highly problematic area of postal voting among army and police personnel.

5. Postal voters who are registered using their regular ICs

Army personnel, who are postal voters, have IC addresses beginning with T. Police personnel, who are postal voters, have IC addressing beginning with R, G and I.

If any of these army or police voters were previously registered as voters using their civilian IC numbers, their civilian registration entries should be deleted from the electoral roll.
Continue reading “‘Dubious’ voters may decide GE13”

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10 major problems in EC’s electoral roll

By Ong Kian Ming | Apr 7, 2012
Malaysiakini

ANALYSIS The Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform report, which was released earlier this week, highlights 22 recommendations on how to improve the electoral process.

I will not go through each and every recommendation or discuss the overall quality of these recommendations since others including the Bar Council chairperson and the Bersih steering committee have already done so.

bersih announcing 3rd rally 040412 ong kian mingWhat I will focus on in this two-part article is the many problems which are to be found in the electoral roll. To summarise, the report fails to acknowledge significant problems that have to do with the electoral roll, many of which are already well known, and seems to limit the scope of checking the accuracy of the electoral roll to a few not very useful parameters.
Continue reading “10 major problems in EC’s electoral roll”

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Bersih 3.0, the fear factor

— Thomas Fann
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 24, 2012

APRIL 24 — As I write this, we are just four days away from April 28, 2012. It is the day which the Bersih 2.0 steering committee has chosen to have Bersih 3.0, a sit-down protest called by its BM name Duduk Bantah. It is late at night and I am sleepless. As I lay awake, I reminisced about Bersih 2.0 held last year on July 9.

However, this time round, Bersih 3.0 is no longer an option for me for I found myself roped into the committee organising it simultaneously with the KL event, in my city. The band of us was crazy enough, probably foolish as well, to even consider doing it. Probably the experiences of July 9, 2011 have hardened our resolve to push for change and we didn’t want our beloved city to miss out on it.

But I am realising that it is one thing to risk your own life and another to be in a position where you may also be risking the lives of others. It is a fear that is multiplied by the number of those who will be coming out to sit down and protest.

Wait a minute! We are just talking about we, the citizens, wanting to say that we think the present electoral system and roll needs to be improved and cleaned up. All we are asking is two hours to sit down in a public space to voice our concerns. Why should we be afraid? Yet, we are. Continue reading “Bersih 3.0, the fear factor”

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Begitu kata Mahathir …

— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Apr 24, 2012

24 APRIL — Memang sudah menjadi adat dan cara hidup semua bangsa dan agama mengenang jasa dan budi orang itu memang menjadi tuntutan. Hidup tidak mengenang budi “ibarat kacang lupakan kulit”. Itulah perbilangan Melayu yang semua orang tahu. Dan sememangnya orang Melayu mengenang jasa.

Hanya sekarang politik tidak dapat membezakan diantara siapa yang patut mengenang jasa dan siapa yang telah memakan jasa. Itulah sekarang menjadi tuntutan Najib apabila beliau melawat P. Pinang dua hari yang lepas. Najib seperti pemimpin Umno yang lain sentiasa menuntut orang Melayu dan rakyat untuk mengenangkan jasa Umno dan pemimpin-pemimpin besarnya yang telah lalu dan yang sedang berkuasa pada hari ini.

Katanya kita mesti ingat kepada jasa Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Dr Mahathir Mohamad serta Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Mereka ini semuanya berjasa kepada orang Melayu dan negara, kata Najib. Kata-kata Najib itu ada benarnya tetapi mengenang jasa itu biarlah bertempat dan kena pada orangnya serta tepat kepada sasaran dimana jasa itu dikenang. Kita tidak boleh mengenangkan jasa kepada mereka yang tidak berjasa seperti mereka yang telah membinasakan perjuangan dan tamaddun bangsa kita sendiri.

Saya berpendapat Dr Mahatnir sepatutnya mengenang budi parti yang telah mengangkat beliau ke mercu kekuasaan, tetapi Mahathir menggunakan kuasa hasil dari mengenang jasa orang Melayu dengan membinasakan parti itu pada suatu ketika dahulu. Jasa parti itu besar kepada beliau tetapi beliau tidak mengenangnya kerana beliau merasakan ahli-ahli Umno tidak lagi mahu lagi mengenang jasanya.

Beliau tidak mahu menerima yang ahli-ahli Umno sudah keberatan untuk memberikan jasa lagi kepada beliau kerana sebab-sebab yang kita dengar semasa ramai dari ahli-ahli Umno mahukan beliau dibersarakan setelah memberikan jasa yang begitu besar kepada beliau. Justru beliau telah membiarkan Umno itu mati walaupun kuasa yang diberikan rakyat kepada beliau boleh menyelamatkan parti itu dari terkubur. Continue reading “Begitu kata Mahathir …”