The Malaysian Election Commission (EC), the appointed agent of the Barisan Nasional (BN), has announced that it invited international election observers from Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar for the upcoming general election. This is in response to Pakatan Harapan’s call for the government to invite international election observers.
Surely, if the election commission has nothing to hide, and is sincere in strengthening elections and democracy, it ought to at least invite representatives from nations who rank above Malaysia in the The Democracy Index Ranking.
The Democracy Index Ranking by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) measures the state of democracy in 167 countries, of which 166 are sovereign states and 165 are UN member states.
| COUNTRY | RANKING | CATEGORY |
| Malaysia | 59 | ‘flawed democracy’ |
| Indonesia | 68 | ‘flawed democracy’ |
| Thailand | 107 | ‘hybrid regime’ |
| Myanmar | 120 | ‘authoritarian’ |
| Cambodia | 124 | ‘authoritarian’ |
However, every nation that the EC has invited rank below Malaysia. Furthermore, other than Indonesia who shares the same status of ‘flawed democracy’ with us, Thailand is classified as a ‘hybrid regime’, and worse still, Myanmar and Cambodia are categorised as ‘authoritarian’ regimes.
Indonesia and Thailand are at best level with Malaysia in terms of the credibility of their election systems. Myanmar and Cambodia will bring no added value to Malaysia’s election system if their own are anything to go by.
Why not invite those from the top 19 ranking nations that are classed as ‘full democracies’ to observe our elections? What is there to hide, from peers who are more democratic? Why can we not learn from those who rank better than us?
Elections observation by international bodies should be the rule, not the exception. It certainly is, for most nations who are either full-fledged democracies, or are striving towards further democratisation.
It is clear that the Malaysian EC is not interested in being observed by those who know better. It is even clearer that it has no intention to strive for better standards.
The type of international observation that is being referred to here, is not the type that has been allowed by the ruling regime. In the last general elections, observers were only permitted within a very limited area in and around Kuala Lumpur, and only allowed to observe within a very short time window of a mere few days before and during polling day itself.
The ruling regime were also extremely selective in whom they allow to be here to observe. Credible and experieced bodies, many with expert interest in the monitoring and observing of elections, were denied; some were even turned away and sent back to their own country.
Pemuda Harapan wants the government and election commission to issue an unrestricted, open invitation to all democratic nations, as well as reputable international election observation and monitoring bodies, to witness these crucial elections.
Show the world that the BN government and the EC has nothing to hide. Until then, we will know that the reality is exactly the opposite- they have everything to hide.