Election Commission (EC) is under a lot of pressure lately by Bersih and other stakeholders. In politics, perception is key. EC which is tasked to run and and manage the electoral process in Malaysia must not only be be independent and impartial but it must be SEEN to be independent and fair too.
The problem is EC Chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof and his deputy Wan Ahmad Wan Omar are not seen to be independent and non-partisan after the duo have admitted that they could have been UMNO members "a long time ago".
It does not really matter if Abdul Aziz and Wan Ahmad are active members or not, it is a fact that they are members of the ruling regime. Part of the problem lies with UMNO too. Since the EC is lies under the purview of the Office of Prime Minister it often considered as a government body. EC is not part of the government. It is supposed to be an independent commission which bears a huge responsibility in ensuring free and fair elections.
Since the admittance, it is no longer tenable for both Abdul Aziz and Wan Ahmad to remain as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of EC. Replacements must be done immediately to stop the credibility pillars of the commission from crumbling completely.
Evidently both Abdul Aziz and Wan Ahmad have not acted in the most transparent and progressive manner when comes to electoral reforms. By being members of UMNO is not going to help at all but make the matter worse.
Bersih 3.0 has another legitimate reason to demonstrate this Saturday.
It is for Umno's own good too if both Abdul Aziz and Wan Ahmad step down. Do it NOW!
8 comments:
My dear AH PENG boy, you must be still a young boy to understand politics but I was told you're a political analyst & so I expect u to be a little smarter in how you trying to see this issue.
Politics is a dirty game & I hope you know that. It's all about how the being in-power use all their resources to defend the challenger & how the challenger use innovative 'out of the box' strategies to knock out the in-power.
I'm sorry to say this article is only good for children's reading becos' people who understand politics will surely know what you had just wrote are written out for the sake of writing. Nothing constructive to short say.
Ken Ong,
Writing is like a boxing match. When you out into the ring, you bear your weaknesses and strengths. The fact that I am known as a political analyst and being interviewed for my comments/analysis means I have something to share.
It does not take an 'adult' like you to see the angle of my post.
It would require the folks involved to have a certain level of integrity and strength of character to step down.
It would already be stretching the limits of credibility if EC chief Abdul Aziz and his deputy Wan Ahmad even hoped that anyone will believe them if they try to claim that they were not aware that they should not be members of a political party in order to avoid conflicts of interest and allegations of partiality.
Indeed, does their actions in the past not make that practically impossible?
And now are they going to say that they are "powerless" to step down? Sheesh!
I'd bet that far fromthat, they will proceed with business as usual, and inthe process, continue to prove just what sort of Election Commission we have to suffer.
Another nail in the coffin of "best democracy" Najib/UMNO/BN!
The article could create awareness to few groups espcially for ah young boy or ah young girl to think further on the role play of EC...
Experienced people may think the contents of this article is "no longer secret"... but it's ok... blogging is all about sharing.
Rightfully, only very well respected figures approved by both political divides should be seconded to such important posts who must displayed neutrality in election for the greater good of the nation and our people.....but our leaders wont hear of it.Pakatan should change such appoinments(appointing non-partisan respectable figures approved by both sides)when it takes over.Show them you play a fair game, win or lose, and earn the respect of the people.
If it is one person, I can accept the excuse of beng overlook. When both the chairman and the deputy chairman is a umno member, its no longer a coincidence. Even if they was a umno member they should have resign. The credibilty of ec is now badly tarnish. if bn win the next election, it will not be a credible government
as u can see all the dropping from the birds .. pls Vote wisely
Khoo,in the first place these two rejects would not even be looked at if they weren't Umno members.Then they got to have the crony mentality to be appointed to their present posts.And their political masters have to make sure that the cronies understand what a cronie's job is.That is to be subservience to their political masters,with no questions asked.
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