(Petaling Jaya,
Thursday):
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk
Dr. Rais Yatim told the media yesterday that the Cabinet had agreed in principle
that the Election Commission should be given enforcement powers to act against
those who break election campaign laws.
He said the Cabinet yesterday discussed the proposals
submitted by the Election
Commission after the recent Pendang and Anak Bukit by-elections seeking new
enforcement powers, and that the Cabinet was sympathetic to the Election
Commission’s request for the establishment of an Election Monitoring Unit with
powers to immediately stop actions which jeopardize harmony and the smooth
running of election campaigns like taking down posters which were
seditious, stop ceramahs if speakers were seditious or offensive, and
seize prohibited items like party symbols taken into polling centres.
The Election Commission would also be allowed to fine the
political parties of candidates who break the law.
Rais said he would chair a meeting with the Election Commission next week to “hammer out the necessary amendments to the law”.
Three objections which go to the root issue of the independence of the Election Commission and its constitutional mandate to conduct free, fair and clean elections are in order:
Firstly, the Cabinet should not have agreed in principle
yesterday to give new enforcement
powers to the Election Commission without referring the issue to all political
parties and the civil society to
ensure free, fair, clean and trouble-free elections in the country.
Secondly, the Election Commission should not have just sent
its proposals for new enforcement powers and amendments to election laws to the
Cabinet, but should have forwarded
them to all political parties, whether in government or opposition, and
interested NGOs – if the Election
Commission is really independent
and cherishes such autonomy putting it above
all political parties and not subservient to the ruling parties.
Thirdly, the question of new enforcement powers for the
Election Commission and further changes to
the election laws are not
“private” matters between the Election Commission on the one hand and
Rais Yatim and the Cabinet on the other, but public issues
which must involve all political parties and the civil society involving
their fullest participation and consultation before Rais “chairs” a meeting
with the Election Commission to “hammer out the necessary amendments to the
law”.
The last point raises a new query -
why should Rais be “chairing” any such meeting with the Election
Commission, as it immediately exposes the
Election Commission as a
subservient creature to a Cabinet
Minister, albeit Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department – making
nonsense of the Election Commission’s claim to constitutional
independence, impartiality
and and being at arms-length relations with all political parties,
whether ruling or opposition?
Before the Election Commission takes another step in its
request for new enforcement powers to ensure smooth and peaceful elections,
seeking deterrent punishment for political parties and individuals
“whose methods of campaigning bordered on the seditious and immoral”,
including barring political parties from contesting in elections, it should
convene an all political party/NGOs roundtable conference to try
to achieve a national
consensus for an enforceable code of conduct to ensure free, fair, clean and
trouble-free elections in the country.
The Election Commission Chairman, Datuk Abdul Rashid Abdul
Rahman said on Tuesday that there were many “crude” incidents during the
Pendang and Anak Bukit by-elections, like pamphlets, posters, banners with
vulgar words, doctored pictures or discriminating statements against
individuals.
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad told
reporters after chairing the UMNO Supreme Council meeting yesterday that UMNO
had a complete dossier of “crude and callous” tactics of PAS in the two
by-elections, “with pictures, posters and evidence from people on how PAS
resorted to violence and lies during the campaign” – which included serious
allegations of dirty tactics like posters depicting Mahathir as a Catholic
priest and another of the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi, as pork seller.
These are serious allegations, and if true, deserve the
fullest condemnation of all
political parties and Malaysians committed to free, fair, clean and trouble-free
elections – but to date, they remain unproven and unsubstantiated allegations.
During the campaigning in the two by-elections, the UMNO director of operations, UMNO Vice President Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib made the allegation that PAS had taken the psychological warfare in the two by-elections to new levels by printing leaflets condemning the former PAS president Datuk Fadzil Noor, and telling all that Barisan Nasional were the ones who printed the leaflets.
Was Muhammad right that the “attacks” on Fadhil Nor were a “black operation” by PAS to get sympathy votes? Could the reprehensible posters attacking Mahathir and Abdullah equally be “black operations” by UMNO to take their psychological warfare in the two by-elections to new levels to get sympathy votes?
This is why the
Election Commission should have established
an independent inquiry into the whole conduct of the
Pendang and Anak Bukit by-elections, comprising representatives from
Suhakam, political parties representing the ruling coalition and the opposition,
and NGOs, not only to establish the culprits behind the “crude and
callous tactics” in the two by-elections, but also to make recommendations as to how the Election Commission can
begin to take seriously its responsibility to ensure that the electoral system
and campaigning are free, fair, clean
and trouble-free, and liberated
from the 3M abuses of media, money and government machinery abuses.
The Election Commission will not be seen to be independent
and impartial if it is only concerned about “crude and callous tactics” from
the Opposition, but unmoved and unconcerned about “crude and callous
tactics” from the ruling coalition.
One of the dirtiest episodes in the history of elections in
Malaysia took place in the 1990 general election, when the entire government
machinery and media control, both printed and electronic, were fully exploited
to perpetrate the lie that Tengku
Razaleigh Hamzah, then the President of Semangat 46, had sold out Malay honour
and race and betrayed Islam by alleging that he had worn the Kadazan headgear
which bore the Christian symbol of the cross.
Did the Election Commission denounce such “crude and
callous tactics” and sought to have enforcement powers to fine or even bar the
Barisan Nasional parties from contesting in elections?
If the Election Commission refuses to seek the co-operation of all political parties and the civil society, and chooses to act unilaterally by working hand-in-glove with the Barisan Nasional parties only, it has only itself to blame if its credibility, independence and impartiality takes another plunge into the abyss.
(25/7/2002)