If Umno Baru have nothing to fear and the Election Commission (EC)
claims that it is independent, why were they afraid to use indelible ink
in previous elections?
Both Umno Baru and the EC want to bury this indelible ink story
quickly. Don’t let them. The use of the indelible ink is the single,
most important factor that would have ensured the defeat of Umno Baru in
the polls. Effective indelible ink will prevent people from voting
multiple times.
Both the EC and Umno Baru have lied; if they claim to be fair and to
have done nothing wrong, they should have a re-run of the election. Who
has the RM7.1 million? Did we buy some of the most expensive food
colouring in the world?
Gerrymandering and the other tricks which Umno Baru and the EC employ
to cheat are effective up to a point, but with indelible ink, the
police, the army, the illegal immigrants, the Umno Baru agents and the
pseudo foreigners holding Malaysian ICs will not be able to cast their
votes several times and so ensure a win for BN.
Both
Umno Baru and the EC have, for successive general elections,
prevaricated over the use of indelible ink, or found last-minute excuses
not to use it. In GE13 they simply tampered with the product and told
bare-faced lies about the ink.
In 2008, the use of indelible ink in GE12 was stopped at the last
minute. At a forum on ‘Free and Fair Elections: Reality or Illusion?’ in
Kota Baru in January 2012, the former EC chairperson Abdul Rashid
Abdul Rahman claimed that the EC was banned from using indelible ink in
GE12 because it contravened Article 119 of the federal constitution.
PAS vice-president Husam Musa had challenged this and said that Abdul
Rashid had announced on national television then, that the ban was for
security concerns. Abdul Rashid had claimed that various people had
obtained a similar ink and were using it to trick rural Malaysians into
staining their fingers before voting.
Husam said: “This means that Rashid was made to lie to the people,”
and added that in 2007, the Fatwa Council had approved the use of the
ink.
Former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul
Aziz confessed that it was he who had prevented the use of the indelible
ink prior to the 2008 general election.
He cited constitutional concerns and the worry that Muslims would be
unable to perform the proper ablutions for prayers. He denied Husam’s
claim that the Fatwa Council had endorsed the use of indelible ink in
the 2008 general election.
Chronology of lies
Then, like now, Umno Baru and its puppets cannot come up with one single lie.
On April 30, 2013, a week before the May 5 elections, soldiers were
allowed to cast their votes first. One soldier claimed that he was able
to wash the ink off his fingers, six hours after he voted.
On May 1, complaints about the indelible ink prompted EC secretary
Kamaruddin Mohamed Baria to say that tests had shown that fingers
painted with ink from shaken bottles lasted longer than the ink from
bottles which had not been shaken.
The following day, May 2, Kamaruddin dismissed reports that the ink
was washable. He stressed that traces of the ink could be seen with a
magnifying glass and that officers would be supplied with magnifying
glass for checking the presence of ink.
Kamaruddin said his staff had found handling the indelible ink
nerve-wracking and consequently failed to follow instructions on its
proper use and application. He criticised the people who had complained
about the washable ink as having ‘ill intentions’ towards the EC.
In an interview with the Straits Times of Singapore on May
12, EC chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof claimed that silver nitrate in
the ink was dangerous, and that the Health Ministry had warned about the
possible damage to kidneys and risk of cancer.
Meanwhile, a mainstream paper claimed on May 29 that several people
had been harassed for lodging police reports on the indelible ink.
On June 6, Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam scotched Abdul Aziz’s
claim and denied issuing a report about the harmful risks to health from
silver nitrate.
On June 17, Abdul Aziz then blamed God for the poor performance of
the ink. The ink had been tested prior to GE13 and he said: “On the
much-awaited day, the power of Allah is greater when the ink could
disappear after being washed several times. Where is the mistake?” [sic]
On June 21, the EC vice-chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said a special
internal team would be formed to discover if the ink had suffered from
internal sabotage.
He said, “There are many forms of EC staff, and we do not know their intention. Hence, the need for an in-depth investigation to find the truth.
“Could the indelible ink not last long because of its quality or is
it the fault of the EC officer who applied it or are there elements of
sabotage? We are puzzled as to why the ink does not last long.”
On June 26, Shahidan Kassim, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s
Department, said the ink was actually food colouring. He said, “No
chemicals were used in the ink, they were instead replaced with food
colouring ingredients which were approved.”
Shahidan declined to reveal the name of the company which had supplied the ink for “security reasons”.
Investigations by Rafizi Ramli, the MP for Pandan, revealed that the
EC contract for the supply of the indelible ink had been given to a
company owned by a Singaporean.
Rafizi alleged that the company had no experience in this line of
work, nor did it have the necessary funds, and had been forced to obtain
a loan, from a Kampang Baru businessman, for the RM7 million needed to
purchase the ink.
Wan Ahmad told an online portal on June 26, that silver nitrate is
not a chemical but a metal. He could not carry out his job at the EC
responsibly and now aspires to be a chemist; but seems to have a dearth
of knowledge as a chemist.
Meaningless politics
On June 27, the Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku
Mansor said that Malaysia is “not a Third World country” and so does not
need indelible ink in its elections. He said that Parliament agreed to
its use because “the opposition wanted it”.
Tengku Adnan is wrong. It was the rakyat who wanted the indelible ink
as part of its clean and fair election demand. Ku Nan also claimed that
chemicals in the ink were not good for the health of the people. He
said, “The chemicals were reduced because the government cares for the
people.”
We already know from Shahidan that there were no chemicals in the ink. So who is telling the truth?
By June 28, various NGOs were demanding details of the supplier of the ink.
Despite the lies and furore surrounding the indelible ink, Wan Ahmad
said that the ink would be used in the Kuala Besut by-election in
Terengganu.
Malaysia does not have a free press, an independent EC, judiciary or
police force. Our civil service is corrupt and ineffective and we have
no idea how our tax money is being spent.
In other words, politics in Malaysia are meaningless, although our
leaders pat themselves on the back for having the “best democracy in the
world”.
Allegations abound that since former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad won
his first election, he has bribed or fudged the results of each
election.
Successive BN governments have continued this practice of cheating
and instead of the government of the day looking after our interests,
Malaysian governance is like a lopsided game, where a handful of
individuals fight for their own interests.
Rural and conservative voters are swayed by traditional values and
stability. They are not convinced by personal freedom and liberal
thoughts.
Democracy is dead in Malaysia. Umno-Baru leaders only use the concept
of democracy as a tool to swindle the rakyat. Individuals in BN use
democracy to increase their personal profit and enhance the party’s
dominance, which is not unlike the politburo of the Chinese Communist
Party who enjoyed benefits which were denied to the rest of the country.
Indelible ink, which will last for more than a week, will restore democracy to Malaysia and smite the foes of the rakyat.
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