Najib has transformed UMNO baru to violent regime

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.