EC’s attacks on Bersih proves EC itself is not independent and is enemy of clean and fair elections

Press statement by Teresa Kok, Member of Parliament for Seputeh and Selangor Senior EXCO in Shah Alam on 1 July 2011.

EC Deputy Chairman Wan Ahmad’s partisan attacks on Bersih 2.0 prove that the EC itself is not independent and is an enemy of clean and fair elections in Malaysia

 

The Election Commission’s Deputy Chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar’s vilification of Bersih 2.0 as a stooge for Pakatan Rakyat makes it clear to all Malaysians that the EC itself is not an independent body and cannot be counted on to uphold the rakyat’s civil right to clean and fair elections.

 

Wan Ahmad’s call for Bersih to distance itself from Pakatan Rakyat is mischievous, misleading and unfair because Bersih made a conscious and public decision to drop all political parties from its membership to avoid such undue accusations after the first Bersih rally in 2007. Bersih is now a coalition consisting of 60+ civil society organizations and no political parties.

 

Furthermore, Bersih has consistently tried to engage with all political parties in Malaysia, including Barisan Nasional (BN), to gather support for its eight demands for electoral reform, only to be consistently ignored, rebuffed or dismissed by BN leaders.

 

Bersih’s eight demands for electoral reform are fair, reasonable and essential in healthy democracies around the world. The eight demands are:

1.       Clean the electoral roll

2.       Reform postal ballot

3.       Use of indelible ink

4.       Minimum 21 days campaign period

5.       Free and fair access to media

6.       Strengthen public institutions

7.       Stop corruption

8.       Stop dirty politics

 

If the EC and the government would only adopt these eight demands, the elected government of the day would have even greater legitimacy in its right to rule. Only an already corrupt and sullied government which robs power through dirty elections, with the support of a partisan EC that enables and turns a blind eye to dirty elections, would oppose these eight demands and demonise the civil society movement that advocates them.

 

I remind Wan Ahmad that at the Public Forum with the EC organized by the Majlis Perbandaran Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) and held at MBPJ on 22 February 2011, and attended by about 200 members of the public, Wan Ahmad himself went on record saying that the EC does not have the power to execute any of the electoral reforms proposed by Bersih due to the EC’s legal limitations and that according to the law, the EC is only empowered “to conduct and administer elections”.

 

Wan Ahmad even said, “I wish you would go to the Prime Minister and the Attorney General with your reform proposals because the EC can’t do anything.”

 

Thus, Wan Ahmad should be grateful that Bersih has the courage and integrity to push for the electoral reforms that the EC is powerless to provide, and lend his full support to the Bersih public rally on July 9.

 

As Deputy Chairman of the EC, Wan Ahmad should recognise that the adoption of Bersih’s eight demands for electoral reform will only help the EC be truly independent of the executive, more powerful and become a world-class institution worthy of respect.

 

Moreover, it is his intense opposition towards Bersih that makes him and the EC look like the enemy of clean and fair elections and puppets of BN, more than ever before.

 

Teresa Kok