-Tan Jo Hann, Executive Director, PUSAT KOMAS
Post BERSIH 3.0 428 – In the midst of the accusations and counter claims of who started the violence on April 28th; or who instigated the breaking of the barricades around Dataran Merdeka; or was it justified of the police to use such force and so forth, let us not forget the original intentions of “428” (April 28 BERSIH 3.0, Duduk Bantah).
The core issues continue to be the unfulfilled 8 demands of BERSIH 2.0 as follows:
1. Clean the electoral roll
2. Reform postal ballot
3. Use of indelible ink (fulfilled)
4. Minimum 21 days campaign period
5. Free and fair access to media
6. Strengthen public institutions
7. Stop corruption
8. Stop dirty politics
April 28th will remain fresh and vivid in our collective memories of the day when the Malaysian “Rakyat”, all 250,000 and more (including Bersih 3.0 rallies outside the capital) stood up to assert their basic rights to free, fair and clean elections.
The apolitical Malaysian public of the 1990’s is already a thing of the past. Today we can see the majority of faces seen in this mammoth rally belonged to ordinary folks or the person on the street types. There were many young men and women, many of them did not even know what to do with the grains of salt thrust into their palms when the teargas canisters were fired.
However let us refocus on the fact that the pending 13th. General Elections is believed to be very near and yet many serious and alarming electoral anomalies still haunts our electoral process. The government of the day is in denial and the Election Commission Chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof continues to desperately claim the Malaysian electoral role has a mere 0.3 % error.
Let us continue to demand answers to the questionable 3 million voters identified as “potential non-resident voters”, meaning that their IC addresses did not correspond with their voting constituencies. Many question marks continue to hover over this issue but to date the Election Commission (SPR) and its political Master, the government of the day continues to defend itself in self denial.
There still remains many unresolved “election mysteries” that begs to be unravel such as the undeclared mind boggling deletions and additions of voters in the electoral roll, making it almost impossible to ascertain if voters were removed or added under suspicious circumstances.
Let us not forget that “428” is about calling for all political parties and the Malaysian public to exercise discipline and good clean values to rise above corrupt practices and dirty politics.
Yes, “428” is about cleaning the elections before the elections!
Yes “428” is also about citizens’ rights to assembly and to occupy the “Freedom Square”.
Yes “428” is a day to remember and share with our children and grand children.
Yes “428” has awakened tens and thousands more Malaysians to defend our basic HUMAN RIGHTS!
PUSAT KOMAS strongly urges Prime Minster Najib and the police to conduct fair and independent investigations into the outbreak of unnecessary and unfettered police violence upon unarmed protesters, and be responsible for the unprofessional and cruel behavior of certain irresponsible police officers.
We strongly demand for the resignation of the entire Election Commission because it has failed to perform its duty as the independent guardians of our ballots!
We demand the Government to hold the 13th General Elections only after the electoral rolls has been satisfactorily cleaned and in order!
We also strongly urge the PM to actively facilitate international election observers be present to ensure the 13th General elections is conducted in a proper, clean, and fair manner.
