SELECT COMMITTEE, ONE VOICE FOR ONE PURPOSE

SELECT COMMITTEE, ONE VOICE FOR ONE PURPOSE

By : DATUK SERI WILFRED MOJILIP BUMBURING

October 6, 2011 : I URGE the members selected to be in this Select Committee on Electoral reforms to work as a unit with one voice and one purpose in mind. I welcome the readiness of the members from the opposition side to be part of this committee and to give their positive contribution. It is our desire that whatever the outcome of this committee deliberation will be put into practice in line with our democratic system.

What I hope to see in this committee is that it functions in a similar manner as with the Public Accounts Committee of which I am a member where the members wholeheartedly worked as a team, one unit.

They should not worked along Opposition lines or Government sides. Although this committee will be tasked with addressing issues that may tend to be divisive in nature but at times we need to have a give and take approach.

The important aspect here is that all the stake holders in our political system must be given the chance to be heard. The stake holders are not only the political parties in Malaysia but must also include NGOs, groups that have interest in our political system. They must be given the chance to operate.

Although some of them may not be given the chance to send their representative to appear before this committee, but I believe the important thing is that all submission that will be forwarded must be treated seriously. Those who will be coming forward to presents their views and submission need to be heard seriously by this committee.

I also agree and is my view that those in various government department must come forward and appear before the committee when they are called to do so. The National Registration Department, The Immigration Department and other government agencies must be allowed to attend when called, unlike the previous Committee on Integrity where it fails to functions effectively.

Whenever we talked about the electoral system in the contexts of Sabah, we can’t escape from talking about the electoral rolls. We are all aware of the existence of the huge numbers of illegal immigrants in Sabah. I don’t have to repeat it here. The books, several publication and reports written on these issues. We can’t deny this fact.

At one time, prior to all these, whenever we go to the market to buy vegetables, fish and other things, we only saw locals selling these products, however, nowadays we see most of these sellers comprise those who have just recently arrived in Sabah.

We also can’t deny that many of them have been entered into our now ‘blacken electoral rolls.’ Recently, the Deputy Home Minister have gone to Sabah and once again declared that there are no Malaysian Identity Card (IC) given to Illegal Immigrants (PTI).

I am of the opinion that the said Deputy Minister is not telling the truth. I repeat what I have said before this in this august House the Deputy Minister is either denying the truth or is ignorance.

Last year, when I was asked to provide the Minister with proof of such existence, I subsequently and honorably handed over a memorandum to the Home Ministry, but to date, I have yet to see a positive reaction from the Ministry concern. I am not going to repeat here what I have stated in that memorandum.

On the issue of cleaning the electoral rolls, I concur that the Election Commission cannot be blamed wholly for the messy electoral rolls. When an individual having in his possession a Malaysian Identity Card, they have no option but to register them as voters as they are not in the position of verifying the authenticity of an IC. They juts register them outright.

However, in passing, I would like to briefly touch on the ruling by the Election Commission requiring Malaysian to register as a voter in a constituency according to the address shown in their ICs.

I understand the rationale behind this ruling, however, we forgot that nowadays Malaysian in general are highly mobile. We have Sabahan coming over to the Peninsular to work and vice versa.

This ruling therefore would inconvenient the people when each time an individual is transferred or posted somewhere else, he or she would have to change their ICs in order for them to amend the address shown on their ICs to enable them to register as a voter and be able to vote in the area where they are now residing.

The whole process repeat itself whenever they are transferred back or moved to another posting. This will involve a lot of unnecessary burden on the peoples finances.

I propose here that these individuals concern don’t need to change their ICs in order for them to change the address status in their respective ICs. All that is required of them is to get a temporary address status with the National Registration Department which will allow them to register as voter in the area they are now residing.

“The issue I would like to briefly say here which is widely debated is on how to prevent a voter from voting more than once. A debate whether to use the biometric system or indelible ink. The biometric system will have its shortcoming in the rural areas where internet connection is not available.

The community Broadband coverage in Sabah at present is still under 26%. What will those polling station do in the remote areas where internet connectivity is zero? There is an unpopular ‘program’ regularly happening in Sabah called ‘blackout’.

This has become common in Sabah. What will the officers in a polling station do when there is no electricity when another blackout occurs? Would they proceed with the voting process or otherwise? Using indelible ink would still be more practical. I agree on the use of ink.

I have also been informed that there are many among the PTI who have claim to owned two or three ICs. As an example, I received a photo of a Sabahan who was apprehended by the Police during the recent Bersih rally.

He has two identity cards. How this this happened? He told the police that he actually have three ICs but only brought with him two. This is only the tip of the iceberg, you have to settle this.

So let us just use ink. This is the most convenient method. No qualms about it. When people get married, they also use [certain kind of] ink, which will last for several days. When we vote we can also use ink.

Finally, I would like to mention the prohibitions on government officers from actively involving in political activities. As a Deputy President of UPKO, I have received comments from certain government department that says “Pegawai kamu tidak boleh campur tangan dalam politik kerana dia ini Division 1”.

Certain individual have been asked to decide between his job at the department or political party. However, I notice there are political parties with some members holding government post with superscale pay but also holding position in a political party. I can see the pro and cons on these.

If certain officers are rational enough, they can schedule their time between being a politician and at the same time being a government officer. The government should come up with a standard policy on. Practices allowing government officers to join only certain political parties and are banned from joining other political parties should be stopped. If they are allowed to certain certain political parties, they must also be allowed to join other political party as well.