Bersih 3.0 is unnecessary. There should not be a need for it.
I wish to qualify my statement, after reading Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein's response to Bersih 3.0 in Parliament today.
Hishammuddin said that the Bersih 3.0 rally can proceed in the spirit of the new Peaceful Assembly Act 2012.
It
is good that the minister has finally learnt that, if the government
continues to fight civil society, it will spell the doom of BN.
Already
the coalition has been in power for far too long - any ordinary person,
upon reaching 55, would have gone into retirement.
One scandal
after another has been uncovered by Pakatan Rakyat, thanks to people
like Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Mat Sabu, but there are more
questions than answers to these scandals. Billions of ringgit have gone
into a black hole.
The Bank Bumiputra scandal, the Perwaja
scandal, the PKFZ scandal, the NFC cowgate scandal, the copgate scandal,
the Amangate scandal, scandals involving Sarawak Chief Minister Taib
Mahmud, the inhumane death of Altantuya, the missing jet engines, the
Lynas issue, Project IC in Sabah (and what appears be a similar
happening in peninsular Malaysia with the 6P programme) - the list goes
on.
As reported by college lecturer Ong Kian Meng, another
100,000 dubious voters have been discovered in the electoral roll, on
top of others reported by the political parties.
Totalling up, it
is a whopping figure of 400,000 dubious voters detected in the existing
electoral roll. Ong is quoted as saying, "This could be just the tip of
the iceberg". Even Mimos, as an independent party, had uncovered some
200,000 dubious voters.
The current election machinery, since
the gerrymandering done by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is
skewed towards helping BN retain a simple majority without difficulty.
These
voters in small parliamentary seats are the kingmakers because they
determine the future of the country, delivering more than 112 seats to
BN.
Despite public pressure, the redelineation of constituencies
has not been carried out to address the imbalance in the number of
voters per constituency.
Unless there is 100 percent voter
turnout on the polling day, where the young and old alike are taking
their votes seriously, it would be impossible to topple the BN
government.
This is what the rakyat has to understand the reason
why S Ambiga and Samad Said, co-chairpersons of Bersih 2.0, called for
the sit-down protest.
I urge the Bersih 3.0 steering committee to
go beyond the sitdown protest. The participants in the Bersih 3.0 should
be encourage to attend voter education provided by civil society groups
such as Tindak Malaysia and equip themselves to serve as election
watchdogs during the polling day.
They should come ready with both
video and still cameras to capture anything that could later be used as
evidence to show that cheating had taken place.
At this
juncture, it is unlikely that the present government under Najib, and
the Election Commission in particular, will voluntarily clean up the
electoral roll with the help of independent representatives from the
Bersih steering committee.
In the first place, the Election
Commission continues to operate as though the call by Bersih steering
committee for it to resign did not happen.
Najib, knowing that
he has to depend on the EC to win the coming general election, has
chosen to remain silent, but his silence is not golden.
In fact, his silence and flip-flop in the way he handled Bersih 2.0 is a clear indication of his weakness as a leader.
He
has at best shown himself to be untrustworthy and trying to confuse the
rakyat over his real motives. The Jalan Sultan MRT controversy is a
good example.
Najib no longer talks about his favourite
slogan, "People first." If he had remained true to his words, Bersih 3.0
would not be necessary.
I repeat, Bersih 3.0 is unnecessary - IF
the government listens to the voice of the rakyat, as spelt out by the
Bersih 3.0 steering committee.
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