Media statement by Teresa Kok Suh Sim in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, 14^th June 2011:

DAP pledges full support to the BERSIH 2.0 march for clean and fair elections

On behalf of the Central Executive Committee of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), I pledge our full support to Bersih 2.0 in their call for electoral reform to restore clean and fair elections in Malaysia. Bersih 2.0 can count on DAP to mobilise our party members and supporters to march on July 9, 2011.

For too long, the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) has undermined the right of the rakyat to elect a government of their choice through corrupt and illegal electioneering.

Gerrymandering (manipulation of electoral composition) and malapportionment (manipulation of electoral size) is rampant, to name but two abominations in Malaysia's electoral process.

A clear example of malapportionment is how during the March 2008 general elections, the constituency of Putrajaya, with its 7,000 voters, sent one MP to Parliament while my constituency of Seputeh, which has 77,000 voters, also had only one seat in Parliament. It is unjust that the vote of a single voter in Putrajaya carries 11 times the weight of a voter in Seputeh.

Furthermore, in the March 2008 elections, BN won only 51 percent of the 7.9 million votes cast and yet with that, they controlled 63 percent of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat, i.e. 140 of 222 seats.

If you exclude Sabah and Sarawak, where BN won all but two seats, their popular vote dips to 49.8 percent in Peninsular Malaysia, and yet they were allowed to form the Federal Government. (Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=10778)

All these electoral manipulation is traitorous to the will of the people.

I express my full support and admiration to Ambiga Sreenevasan, Chairperson of Bersih 2.0 for her leadership and unwavering commitment to the cause of clean and fair elections, unbowed by the relentless attacks upon Bersih 2.0 by the Barisan Nasional government, Utusan Malaysia and Malay supremacist group Perkasa.

I condemn all these attacks, particularly Perkasa's plan to hold a counter-protest and have a direct clash with Bersih 2.0 supporters on July 9 itself. It's clear that Perkasa is bent upon violence.

Perkasa's hostility towards Bersih 2.0 also also proves that Perkasa is a volatile group with no clear mission and zero integrity. They claim to be a Malay rights group yet they declare crusades against Christians one day, protest against peaceful anti-ISA groups the next and now they object to electoral reform. These feral positions taken by Perkasa lend credence to the popular belief that Perkasa is really UMNO’s own extremism by another name.

* Teresa Kok Suh Sim, DAP National Organizing Secretary, Selangor State Senior EXCO for Investment, Industry & Trade & MP for Seputeh