An opposition MP tells the Prime Minister to put in place proper reforms before calling for the general election
PETALING
JAYA: The latest survey by the Merdeka Centre reveals that the rakyat
have lost faith in the country’s electoral system, despite efforts by
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to set a transformation agenda, an
Opposition member of parliament charged here today.
“The results (of the survey) clearly showed that Malaysians have little
confidence in the half-hearted steps taken by the Prime Minister which
was intended to give a better perception of our electoral process,” said
Tony Pua, the DAP MP for Petaling Jaya Utara.
The survey revealed that only 44% of Malaysians interviewed were
“confident” that the country’s electoral process was free from
irregularity despite the Election Commission’s repeated insistence that
our electoral roll is “the cleanest in the world”.
“Even so, only 5% of those surveyed did not think that an electoral roll
clean-up before the next general election was necessary, while a
whopping 92% thought a clean-up exercise is necessary,” he added.
The opposition MP also said among the key reforms sought by Bersih, a
coalition of NGOs fighting for free and fair elections, was the
abolishment of postal voting, and this was supported by the survey’s
outcome where only 37% thought it was “transparent and free from
political interference”.
The Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on electoral reforms had in the
last sitting agreed to amend the postal vote system for the army into
an early-voting system, but at the same time added some 300,000 names to
the postal voter list.
“The distrust of the PSC can be seen from the results which showed that
only 34% thought it was “a sincere effort” from the BN government “to
reform” while 43% thought it was an “attempt to cover up or divert
public attention”.
“Similarly 81% of Peninsula Malaysians support the call for a Royal
Commission of Inquiry on the Sabah illegal immigrants issue, but the
Prime Minister has chosen to ignore the demand from the people,” he said
in a statement.
He said from the data, collected before hundreds of thousands of
Malaysians poured onto the streets of Kuala Lumpur on April 28 to
demonstrate and demand for free and fair elections, it is beyond doubt
that the “political transformation programme” commenced since Merdeka
celebrations last year has failed to move Malaysians.
The result, he said, also fully justified why it was necessary for
Bersih to take to streets despite being denied the opportunity to gather
peacefully in Merdeka Square to demand free and fair elections for all
Malaysians.
“We call upon the Prime Minister to go the whole nine yards in real
political and electoral reforms. The people does not want to see Najib
put in place some pseudo-reforms which are in effect ’1 step forward
and 2 steps backward’ type of new regulations.
“The Prime Minister will have the opportunity to pass new laws seeking a
full transformation of the electoral process when the Parliament
commences its sitting on 11 June before dissolving it for the next
general election.
Without true and thorough reforms, he will fail to win legitimacy even
if he were to win the vote count in the 13th General Election as he will
be seen as having won the elections through cheating and fraud, instead
of via the support of the people,” Pua said.
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