8th March 2008. True & Fair Elections?

by g.washington post, donplaypuks® intrepid correspondent for voting affairs

The rusty and creaking remnants of the government machinery have cranked up quickly and shifted into overdrive in trying to salvage a modicum of respect from the dismal dregs of defeat in the recently concluded elections. In attempting to put a positive spin on the devastation that followed in the wake of ‘T080308’ - Tsunami 8th March 2008 - the party spindoctors and sycophant faithful have been quick to proclaim that, if nothing else, the results prove that we are a showcase for Democracy, and that the machinations of the EC and its long-serving Chief, have always been above-board.

The post-election leaders in the state-controlled newspapers, and the shell-shocked, battered and bruised blue-and-black PM and his much discredited motley crew, who looked like they had just barely managed to crawl out of the gas and mustard poison-filled fumes of the World War I trenches at Ypres, would have you believe that it was, to borrow an auditing term, a ‘True and Fair’ elections.

Nothing could be further than the truth!

Were it not for the hawk-like vigilance of the opposition parties, the incumbents might have got away with open, ‘mass murder’, so to speak.

Gerrymandering has long been the order of the day in ensuring native-dominated and correspondingly smaller constituencies held over-sway and a disproportionate say in determining election victories.

Now is the time to hold the EC, whose chief’s manipulated extension of tenure by Constitutional amendment was objected to by the Opposition (and whose concerns were peremptorily dismissed by the PM), accountable for all the oddities in the Electoral Roll and process.

Managers who work in private-sector organisations would not last 30 months in their jobs if they frequently made errors of Titanic magnitude!! 30 Years? That is the very reason for Nuremberg, for crimes against Humanity. Yet, the pathetic sycophants would have you believe that the EC Chief’s continued service was necessary, nay absolutely essential, for transparency and integrity to prevail. It begs the question why we have an EC with hundreds, if not thousands, of staff. In 30 years, at least one or two of them could have been trained to be an adept and effective No.2, to take over the reins at the appointed time, which, given the Civil Service and its penchant for the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure), is known way in advance?

Yet extensions of tenure of service seem to be the order of the day – for everything from the post of Head of Civil Service, to the Judiciary, Police, Army, Navy, Airforce, ACA et al. No one’s work seems ever finished, even if they have been at it for 30 years. No one retires at the appointed time. Life-long tenure, if that could be worked in. In the newspaper cartoon strip, Bristow, a long-serving and suffering clerk, used to mutter about being 332nd or something in the line of succession for the position of Chief Clerk!

This fau pax, a defect in character, which points towards the reason why none of the political parties here have ever had an orderly succession of credible leaders, is congenital, and borne of a group of men who have never truly had to really work for a living and who have never been through the rough and tumble of the mill. If they have, they then feel they are entitled to be multi-millionaires when they eventually (choose to) retire, even if they have occupied a sinecure’s post for the better part of their adult existence.

So, my fellow citizens, let’s ask some pertinent and pointed question of the exalted and venerated EC Chief :-

1. Was the order ever placed to purchase 48,000 bottles of indelible ink from India at the cost of RM 2.4 million?

2. Was the ink delivered before the elections? Please provide documentary evidence such as Purchase Order, Invoice, Customs Declaration and Import documents, Delivery Order from supplier etc.

3. Please provide the names, occupation and IC Number of the person(s) who made police reports that indelible ink had been smuggled in (and from where was it smuggled so quickly). Please provide copies of the relevant Police Report(s).

4. Please explain rationally and in detail, how national security could have been imperilled and compromised, and electoral fraud committed, had indelible ink been used, Weren’t your officers out there by the thousands to prevent just that from occurring?

5. Please explain why your legal officer(s) had not addressed the issue of Constitutional amendment , or sought the AG’s opinion on such an important issue, much earlier.? Please identify and name the derelict and delinquent legal officer so that he/she can be reprimanded as provided for by the SOP.

6. How is possible that after 30 years of your tenure, we have some 8-9 thousand registered voters age 120 and over on the Electoral Roll? What do you intend to do about this now?

7. How is that they were reports (as shown on national TV) of phantom voters and also duplicate registration of army personnel?

8. Why is it that after 30 years, it is still not possible for those residing outstation to vote by post, instead of actually having to travel back to their home-towns to do so - a rather expensive and inconvenient process you agree?

9. Why is that after 30 years, it is not possible for those eligible citizens studying, working or who have travelled, overseas, at the time of Elections, to vote at the respective Embassies, High or Trade Commission offices overseas?

Please do not insult our intelligent by announcing, like a (in) famous, now defunct MB, that our standards are higher than those in New Zealand, Belgium and other leading western cities and countries.

If you feel that you do not owe the citizens of this country a proper and detailed explanation to the foregoing questions, then please tender your resignation to the Government forthwith! We do not appreciate those civil servants whose salaries and perks are paid for from taxes levied on our hard-earned private-sector income, doing nothing more than warming the seat of their chairs for 30 years, and then instead of carrying out their duties diligently and impartially, conspire with their political masters to try and put one over their fellow citizens.

donplaypuks with my voting rights man!! donplaypuks® at http://donplaypuks.blogspot.com