KUALA LUMPUR, 5 Mar — The Democratic Action Party (DAP) has reaffirmed its support towards having clean, free and fair elections in Malaysia, as party leaders reiterated their commitment through sessions held at the International Conference on Malaysia 13th General Election, here.

Organised by the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, DAP leaders who were invited to speak on the first day of the conference are DAP Parliamentary Leader, Lim Kit Siang; DAP Political Education Director, Liew Chin Tong and DAP Election Strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming.

Meanwhile, DAP National Organising Secretary Loke Siew Fook, and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng were invited to give their speeches on the second day of the conference.

Democracy in Malaysia needs repair
Lim Kit Siang delivered his speech in the first out of seven sessions of the two-day conference, titled ‘An appraisal of the electoral democracy in Malaysia’. Joining him were President of the Malaysian Bar, Lim Chee Wee and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nazri Aziz.

According to Lim, also the Member of Parliament for Ipoh Timur, decades of BN rule led to a situation where “Malaysia cannot be understood or classified as categorized as a democratic country” by all international measures.

“Malaysia has been classified as a ‘partly free country’, a ‘flawed democracy’, a ‘hybrid regime’, a ‘dominant party authoritarian regime’ or a ‘soft authoritarian regime’ and an ‘autocracy’ but no respected political scientist or international organization has ever put Malaysia among the ranks of what is commonly accepted as democratic countries,” he said.

Lim also stressed that if Pakatan Rakyat does not deliver on the promises stated in the coalition’s manifesto should it come to power, the people would have the choice to “replace one government with another”, true to the principles of democracy.

“But this cannot happen until the current Barisan Nasional (BN) government is kicked out of power with a resounding mandate from the people,” he said.

Challenges during the coming elections
In the third session of the conference, Dr Ong Kian Ming listed the critical challenges that shall be faced by Pakatan Rakyat component parties come the general election, breaking down a quote by former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about ‘known knowns’, ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’.

The third session, titled ‘Addressing critical challenges of the electoral process of Malaysia 13th General Elections’, saw Dr Ong speaking as panelist alongside Liew Chin Tong and Secretary of the Election Commission (EC), Kamaruddin Mohamed Baria.

Dr Ong explained what he meant by the ‘known knowns’, in which he said could be referred to BN’s manipulation of money, machinery and media. This is a known tactic which BN is employing in the run-up to the 13th general election.

He then proceeded to elaborate on the ‘known unknowns’, asking the audience, “How many phantom voters have been registered? How many will turn out to vote? Will observers be allowed to monitor the overseas postal ballots? How many election agents will become postal voters? How many army and police voters will be advance voters versus postal voters?”

“Will an emergency be declared because of the situation in Sabah? What will the appointed election observers say and do? Will ROS move to try to deregister DAP before or even during the GE?” he gave as examples of unknown possible scenarios.

Dr Ong later explained on the ‘unknown unknowns’, citing examples such as the possibility of BN “springing a big surprise”, and what will occur after the 13th General Elections — both of which are unpredictable in nature.

Early voting proposal for election workers
Meanwhile, Liew Chin Tong said it is now crucial for the EC to look into the situation of an alarming number of election workers expected to cast their ballots through postal voting.

The Member of Parliament for Bukit Bendera said the total number of election workers doubled from 100,000 during the last 12th General Election to an estimated 226,000 for the incoming elections, according to an estimation given by the EC.

Liew proposed that the election workers should cast their votes via the early voting system instead, aware of the possibilities of manipulations known to take place in handlings of postal votes.

“We are of the view that they [the workers] should be given advance voting, instead of postal voting. ‘Early voting’ means that they will be scrutinized by both sides, in the same manner as normal voting, except that they will be voting earlier,” Liew said.

“Pakatan Rakyat will push for this issue so that advance voting shall not only be made available for media practitioners, but also for election workers,” he added.

Advance voting system, also known as early voting, is already made possible for military and police personnel and their spouses, as well as for media practitioners.

The international conference, aimed to discuss concerns on election handlings in Malaysia, was held at the Royal Lake Club from 4 to 5 March. — The Rocket