How could a closet racist and extremist hide his true colours as to be the Election Commission Secretary/Chairman for 25 years, responsible for six general elections and three constituency delimitation exercises?

Yesterday, I said more and more lawyers and Malaysians are asking how an extremist with racial and religious prejudice like Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad could rise up to become Chief Justice, the top judicial officer of the land.

Similarly, more and more Malaysians are also asking how a closet racist and extremist like Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman could hide his true colours to dominate the Election Commission for a quarter of a century, as he was appointed Election Commission Secretary in 1979 and was Election Commission Chairman from 2,000 to 2,008, responsible for six general elections and three constituency delimitation exercises in 1984, 1994 and 2003.

When Rashid, who is now Perkasa Vice President, first joined the extremist and racist UMNO-funded NGO in November last year, he said his objective was to champion Malay rights and ensure Malays retain power.

He told the media at the time that as Election Commission Chairman, he knew how to keep the Malays in power.

He said three redelineation exercises of electoral boundaries which were done during his time with the Election Commission had ensured Malays remained in power.

Last week, without mincing his words at the Perkasa general meeting, Rashid told the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib to stop lying to the public about the real situation in the country.

He dismissed the UMNO leadership as “corrupt” and asserted that UMNO/BN were in their “death throes”.

He even suggested that Perkasa “fortify efforts to become a political body which will rule the country”.

However, when Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi retaliated asking why Rashid did not the issue when he was still serving in government, together with the cryptic allegation “He asked for something and didn’t get it”, there was no follow-up clarification either from Rashid or Zahid as to what the “thing” meant.

However, from his broadside against the Prime Minister, Rashid seemed to suggest that he is in the know about high-level corruption in UMNO top leadership.

If so, he should volunteer and help the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) with inside information about top-level corruption by the UMNO leadership, so that Malaysia can join China and Indonesia to nab the “tigers” and “crocodiles” in the battle against corruption, and not just confined to “ikan bilis”.

Rashid can also provide information to the MACC what was the “thing” which Zahid had referred to so as keep his mouth shut.

It is strange that Rashid did not offer himself as a witness for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) as in his capacity as Election Commission Secretary and later Chairman, he should have expert knowledge on Project IC or Project Mahathir and would be able to assist the RCIIIS in its inquiry on the scam to issue blue identity cards to tens and hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants so that they could be unlawfully registered as voters on the electoral rolls in Sabah in order to change the political demography in the state.

Malaysians and Sabahans would like to know what he did as Election Commission Secretary and Chairman to preserve the integrity of the electoral roll and the electoral process.

May be Rashid would like to comment on these two issues.