Shahidan Kassim's latest expose has reinforced public demands that the entire EC resign
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Shahidan Kassim’s latest expose that no chemicals were used in the indelible ink but only food colouring has reinforced public demands that the entire Election Commission’s(EC) must resign for defrauding the people and abuse of public funds and power. In a parliamentary written answer to DAP MP for Segambut Lim Lip Eng, Shahidan Kassim said the indelible ink did not last a week as promised because all the chemicals in the ink were replaced by food colouring.
Shahidan’s admission debunked EC’s previous claims that silver nitrate was used in the ink and was supposed to last seven days. This latest revelation comes after Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam openly contradicted EC Chair Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof’s claims that the EC consulted the Health Ministry regarding the safety of the indelible ink by stating that the Health Ministry had never issued such a report.
Tan Sri Abdul Aziz had previously told the Straits Times of Singapore in a May 12 interview that the Health Ministry had advised against adding more than one percent of silver nitrate to the ink, which would have made the ink last. The EC was indirectly blaming the Health Ministry for refusing to allow an extra 1% of silver nitrate and causing EC to waste RM 7.1 million on purchasing the indelible ink fiasco that could be easily washed off.
To date Tan Sri Abdul Aziz has failed to produce the letter from the Health Ministry that stated putting more than one percent of silver nitrate in the ink could damage the kidney and cause cancer, a letter that the Health Minister himself denied ever issuing. How many more lies must the public endure from the EC Chairman and Deputy Chairman?
Shahidan in another reply to Seremban MP Anthony Loke that the total cost was RM7.1 million, added that the EC cannot reveal the name of the 'indelible' ink supplier because of security reasons. It is ridiculous that the national security of Malaysia can be threatened or riots will take place if the supplier of the indelible ink that wasted RM 7.1 million funds is made public.
Did PR Lose The Perak State Government Cleanly And Fairly?
EC has still refused to respond to the switching of election results between BN and PR as exposed by DAP Perak publicity chief Wong Kah Woh for the Jelapang state seat in Perak. DAP's Borang 14 for Polling Stream 3 at SRJK (C) Lahat shows DAP candidate Teh Hock Ke having obtained 330 votes, compared with 137 votes for the BN. However, the result for this stream announced by the EC was in the reverse, with the BN said to have received 330 votes against 137 for the DAP. The EC backed this with a different Borang 14.
Wong said the EC's version of the result, which has been gazetted, is highly unlikely because the DAP's parliamentary candidate Batu Gajah that covered Jelapang state seat, V. Sivakumar garnered 373 votes in that stream, compared with BN's 141 votes. In the other four streams at the SRJK (C) Lahat polling station, Teh garnered between 58 and 67 percent of the popular votes and won Jelapang with more than 70% of the votes.
What is shocking is Wong’s suspicion that one of the Borang 14 is likely to have been forged, because the handwriting for the figures in the copies of the form with the DAP and the EC are similar, but the signatures of the DAP, BN and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) counting agents and the presiding officer are different on the two forms.
DAP won Jelapang with 16,921 votes, a majority of 12,266 votes compared with the 4,655 votes received by BN and 2,568 votes won by PSM. Although the discrepancy will not cost DAP the Jelapang seat, Wong correctly said it would have made a difference in marginal seats such as Lubok Merbau, Manjoi and Pasir Panjang. Indeed this can change the final result as to which party forms the Perak state government as BN won Perak by 3 seats with 31-28 seats.
BN’s Retention Of the EC Shows That The Basic Democratic Principle Of “One-Person, One-Vote, One-Value” Will Be Violated.
There can be no politically and morally legitimate government when BN won the smallest 112 parliamentary seats that comprise a mere 20% of the voters to form the Federal government. What type of legitimacy is enjoyed by a government that only enjoys 47% popular support as compared to 51% by the opposition? The average parliamentary constituency size of a BN seat is 46,510 voters compared to PR’s 77,655 voters.
BN’s retention of the EC shows that the basic democratic principle of “one-person, one-vote, one-value” will be violated. The striking contrast of PR’s seat of Kapar with 160,000 voters with BN Putrajaya of around 16,000 voters highlights the unfair delineation of constituencies by EC that is weighted heavily in BN’s favour.
As EC Deputy Chair Datuk Wan Ahmad was EC Secretary during the last constituency delineation exercise in 2002, how can the rakyat expect natural justice? The entire EC must resign because they have no integrity and public credibility to carry out a clean, free and fair redelinenation of constituencies that fully respects the principle of “one-person, one-vote, one-value”.
