Kok: Bersih 2.0 trying to empower EC

Jul 1, 11 5:32pm

The Election Commission (EC) would be a beneficiary of Bersih 2.0’s initiative in calling for electoral reform, so the commission should not demonise it, said Seputeh MP Teresa Kok.

She said this was because what Bersih 2.0 was mooting are reforms that are purportedly beyond the EC’s powers, such as matters that require legislative reform.

Kok (left) pointed out that the EC had on numerous occasions admitted it had no power to change the law, such as during the Feb 22 public forum organised by Bersih 2.0.

At that event, Wan Ahmad Wan Omar, deputy chairperson of the electoral body, had said that the EC could not execute any of the electoral reforms proposed by Bersih 2.0 because they required legislative amendments.

Wan Ahmad had urged forum participants to approach the premier and the attorney-general with their proposals “because the EC can’t do anything”, he was quoted saying by Kok.

According to Malaysiakini‘s archives, Wan Ahmad had also said: “Civil society must play up to the public to give us power.”

“Thus, Wan Ahmad should be grateful that Bersih 2.0 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 rally on July 9.

“As deputy chairperson of the EC, Wan Ahmad should recognise that the adoption of Bersih 2.0’s eight demands for electoral reform will only help the EC to be truly independent of the executive, more powerful and become a world-class institution worthy of respect.

“Moreover, it is his intense opposition to Bersih 2.0 that makes him and the EC look like the enemy of clean and fair elections and puppets of the BN, more than ever before,” Kok said in a statement today.

Bersih already excluded Pakatan

She was responding to claims by Wan Ahmad (right) that Bersih 2.0 is a front for Pakatan Rakyat’s attempts to mobilise support ahead of the 13th general election.

Kok said his call for Bersih 2.0 to distance itself from Pakatan was “mischievous, misleading and unfair” because the movement did not include political parties among its decision makers.

“Bersih 2.0 made a conscious and public decision to drop all political parties from its membership to avoid such undue accusations after the first Bersih rally of 2007.

“Bersih 2.0 is now a coalition consisting of more than 60 civil society organisations and no political parties,” said Kok, who was heavily involved in the movement’s first incarnation, known just as Bersih.