Media statement by Dr. Hiew King Cheu in Kota Kinabalu on Saturday, 30^th June 2011:

Fixed date for election

In Malaysia, the date on the dissolution of Parliament is to be decided by the Prime Minister, and the announcement normally comes after he had seek the consent of the King (AGONG).

There are no rules or guidelines to fix the date of dissolution, and it is entirely up to the will and wish of one person - the Prime Minister. This system has pushed all Malaysian to a "wild goose chase", and the guessing game starts whenever coming close to the end of the 5-year term or even earlier during the term for a snap election to catch the people or the oppositions by surprise. When getting nearer to the five - year term, the political parties would work extra hard, and the people always ask when is the Prime Minister going to dissolve the Parliament and the State Assemblies? Actually, only the PM knows the answer, and may be someone close to him would know better.

This method gives the ruling party - BN, who had ruled Malaysia in the past years since the formation of Malaysia with the full benefits, full control, together with the making use of the best political scenario to gear things up, dishing out all the goodies, and finally caught the opposition parties by big surprises to enable them to rescuers power.

Is this a fair and proper system to call for a general election in the country? Many people would say no to it, due to the uncertainty on the date, it brings along implications in many aspects, especially like the impact on our foreign investment, tourism industry, economy, trades, on the local market trend, and even the plans for oversea holidays. For those who are overseas are usually cannot made it back to vote.

The Barisan Nasional has adopted this method as their best weapon after using this for the past 12 general elections to secure win and return to power again and again. Will this time in the 13th general election be the same, or the PM is going to wait until the full term, this is still everybody's guess. The BN side said they also preferred full term, but this is merely speculation because they themselves also don't know when the PM is going to dissolve the Parliament.

There are countries who had fixed specific date or period for their general election to be held, and when time comes they will hold their election to allow the people to decide who best to lead. The people in Malaysia now also wish to have a fixed date or period set on when the election is to be held, at least this is going to be fare for everyone. They are tired of this waiting and guessing game as when the general election is going to come.

* Dr Hiew King Cheu, MP for Kota Kinabalu