Malaysia’s pseudo-democarcy need urgent reforms-essential reading ahead of Sarawak elections

Abstract:

A regime obsessed with colossal victories by its very nature breeds a
strong resistance towards changes that may reduce its political advantage. To fuel
such a political culture within the Malaysian society, the governing coalition has
resorted to continuous, conscious and calculated legitimisation of its actions to
secure electoral victory. Such an end can only be met through serious top-down
distortion of electoral democracy.193
Barring an independent Election Commission and appropriate judicial
remedies, electoral democracy risks being irretrievably jettisoned in Malaysia.194
Instead of the continuous legitimisation of an uninterrupted plebiscitary pseudodemocracy,
urgent electoral reforms – in many areas – are needed in Malaysia to
restore public confidence in its electoral system, as well as to ensure the
legitimacy of its political system.

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EC’s press release in announcing the Sarawak state elections-why such short campaign period?

KENYATAAN MEDIA
SURUHANJAYA PILIHAN RAYA MALAYSIA
PILIHAN RAYA UMUM KE-10 DEWAN UNDANGAN NEGERI
SARAWAK
1. Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) telah menerima pemakluman
rasmi daripada Tuan Yang Terutama Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sarawak
pada 21 Mac 2011 berhubung dengan pembubaran Dewan
Undangan Negeri (DUN) Sarawak.

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A Sarawak video collection started

Good starter to know about Sarawak!

Go here to see great videos made recently on Sarawak. Essential viewing. Videos are made by various sources, including Aljazeera and local video makers.

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The real 4 `hot seats’ where even the electoral roll is being manufactured!

Hot sales of electoral rolls at EC office!

As of 5.00pm yesterday the Election Commission office in Kuching was a hive of activities where the electoral rolls are being sold like a `pasar malam’(night market). But there are 4 seats where the electoral roll is still baking in the oven: Baleh (incumbent: Masing), Asa Jaya, Pelagus(incumbent: Larry Sng) and Kartibas. Why are these electoral rolls not done yet? Are not all the rolls finalised and gazetted already according to announcement by the EC Chair Tan Sri Abdul Aziz a few days ago? Can gazetted rolls still be changed? The EC staff claimed that they can still change the rolls if there is a fire that burn down a polling center! Well did anyone hear of any polling center being burnt lately-and so many of them that they affect all 4 constituencies? The EC is well advised to sort this out and provide a more credible answer ASAP so that there would not be more damaging speculations on these 4 really `hot’ seats!

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