Clean Two Point Ooh!

or in bahasa melayu, Bersih 2.o.

as we get closer and closer to the 9th, the government and the police, are all up in arms.

it isn't a bit surprising that there are massive loads of papers and posters with handcuffs around the wards, hung around like the ahlong posters.

the mainstream played down and probably twisted the whole truth by calling it a massive display of disruption to business, hooliganism and some opposition play-ups, without giving us the whole truth about Bersih 2.o.

if one is interested,

the full guide here.
the (half) idiot guide here.

a bit of excerpt from the (1/2) idiot guide:

Look at the 8 demands by Bersih 2.0 :

1. Clean up the electoral roll. Again. (what fucking took the EC so long to do it? Bunch of incompetent goons.)

2. Reform postal voting. Again. (still not done and the EC actually makes it harder now for postal votes counting process to be impartial with some stupid new rules, I cannot remember it so you google it up)

3. Use of indelible ink. Again. (nothing done over this promise by EC and now they are suggesting for the use of biometric system. You cannot even implement this cheap indelible ink idea you want to use biometric system? Are you dumb?)

4. Introduce a minimum 21-day campaign period. (this is a new demand, because the EC is blardy inconsistent with the given campaign period. 21 day is just right, not too long, not too short and should be enough time for all parties to prepare for D-day. 1st election this country had, campaign period was 42 days. Now? 2 weeks. Some voters don’t even know who are the candidates in some elections.)

5. Allow all parties free and equal access the media. Again. (well, you need a fair, equal footing or fighting ground for a fair fight and to win the fight respectably.)

6. Strengthen public institution. (I am not quite sure how asking EC to fulfill this demand)

7. Stop corruption. (during the election time, some parties often resorted to pork-barrel corruption, going blatantly without regards to the laws)

8. Stop dirty politics. (Well, yeah. It’s only dirty when you want it to be dirty. We should aim for election where candidates talk about policies they offer to voters. Not about sex. Slander.)

Any of the demands above is political? Bias to any political party? And if any of the demands above is achieved, does it has anything to do with communism, religion, foreign espionage bla bla bla? Opposition parties are seen openly supporting Bersih 2.0 because they always have been at disadvantage in any election and they just want an equal chances to win the people’s votes. Isn’t that a fair request? All political parties should demand for this, an equal chance. Unless you’re a quack.

The demands above matter because impartial referees matter in determining the governance of our country.

..................Before the 1962 amendments, the EC had tremendous power and, more importantly, it had a great deal of independence.

Between 1957 and 1962, it was the EC that determined the delineations of the constituencies. And because commissioners had security of tenure (it was really hard to get rid of them as once appointed their tenure was akin to that of judges), their decision could be made independent of any sort of pressure from the government of the day.

However, in 1962, all that changed. The security of tenure was stripped away so that the commissioners worked at the pleasure of the Executive. Furthermore, the delineation of parliamentary constituencies was now placed into the hands of Parliament.

The implications are obvious. Whoever controls Parliament could then determine the delineation of the constituencies that best suits them.

And because you have control of Parliament that means you also determine the Executive. Thus, you will have power over the EC, too.

In the words of H.E. Groves at the time of the amendment:

“The vital power of determining the size of constituencies as well as their boundaries is now taken from a commission, which the Constitution makers had apparently wished, by tenure and status, to make independent and disinterested, and has been made completely political by giving this power to a transient majority of Parliament, whose temptation to gerrymander districts and manipulate the varying numerical possibilities between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ constituencies for political advantage is manifest.”

I do not care who has the majority in Parliament, be it Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat or any other party that may pop up.

The current situation is simply not a good state of affairs because it can be abused by whoever has power................

Thus, I believe uncle N and his merrymen should really consider joining the bandwagon of Bersih as well, because at the end of the day, if it is his party that is being re-elected in the next GE based on fair electoral fight, the opposition will have nothing to say but to shut up, right?

2ndly, the amount of economic disruption that Bersih could have done is probably more or less similar to any streets marathons that were being held. It is just a bunch of guys in yellow, walking with one of them holding a memorandum to pass to the Royal Highness. Anyway, the supporters all mean business, clean political business, not business as usual.

3rdly, it could do a lot of good in the matter of health. It is probably a full body exercise - the legs doing the walking, the hand-raising, and the slogan shouting exercise.

4thly, also a time for muhibbah. malaysian from all walks of life, old and young, all races, obese and underweight, literate and illiterate.

With all this plus points, probably, prizes should be given to the participants like those marathons and do some afterwalk events, such as concerts or yellow food fiesta.

And instead of letting a bunch of people walking around the streets peacefully for their own health, the muhibbah of the community and the vision of an impartial democracy, if one is contemplating the same watercannon and teargas fiesta again, one will probably be ridiculed by the whole wide world, again.

because the public... sometimes has their own 'watercannon', too.

I hope for a clean electoral system as well, and hoping to create as minimal economical disturbance to others, I silently supported this vision by wearing yellow on that same day.

I think every Malaysian should do the same.

last word of advice - make love, not war