FRANKLY, you wasn't surprised at all when it was reported in late Apr which both a Election Commission (EC) chairperson as good as emissary chairperson were Umno members. Even though justification of celebration membership as good as despite a EC emissary chairperson's successive U-turn as good as denial, it would not be a widen to suppose both a chairperson as good as his emissary have been Umno members.
I don't disbelief PKR's proclamation about a tip EC leaders' supposed domestic membership was strategically timed to be released a day prior to a twenty-eight Apr 2012 Bersih 3.0 protest. Clever strategy aside, Umno membership alone isn't a usually justification of a EC's lack of independence. The justification has been ascent over a years.
Wan Ahmad Wan Omar
What alternative explanation do you have? And how can you be oh-so-certain which a EC is not eccentric even if it's in a future demonstrated which neither Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof nor Datuk Wira Wan Ahmad Wan Omar have been members of any political party?
A debasing commission
Firstly, every single member of a EC, including a chairperson as good as deputy chairperson, is a former civil servant. The m! ost new appointment, Datuk Christopher Wan Soo Kee, was before a former Kuala Lumpur Special Branch chief. This composition in itself sets a EC up for disposition given polite servants' professional precision is to carry out a wishes of a supervision of a day.
Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof
This point was made by Bersih 2.0 in a recommendations to a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) upon Electoral Reform in Nov 2011. It argued which in a country where usually a single coalition has formed a federal supervision given 1955, "inevitably, comparison polite servants solemnly stop making a eminence in between a supervision as good as a domestic party". That includes a Royal Malaysian Police Force as well, which has mostly demonstrated which BN events can ensue though a hitch whilst Pakatan Rakyat functions have been mostly prevented from starting ahead.
Bersih 2.0's claim is supported by a sworn statement of EC officials themselves. In an interview by a team of researchers with a tip 3 EC officials in a 2000s, a afterwards chairperson, emissary chairperson as good as cabinet member pronounced it was "normal for them to see a prime minister even prior to constituency reviews were begun". The chairperson combined which "as a practical matter, requests for meetings by 'number a single as good as series two' could not be refused, distinct similar requests from obtuse domestic leaders". [1]
It is not usually academics who have reported upon a debasing attribute in between a EC as good as a supervision of a day. In a march of researching for this column, you found an aged news report you wrote in! The Star upon nineteen January 2003. The article quotes a afterwards EC cabinet member as observant which a elect would submit a updated electoral hurl to a supervision for clearance after it had been displayed.
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Many adults have additionally witnessed first-hand a EC's subservience to a BN. At a Bersih 2.0 public forum upon twenty-one February 2011 in Petaling Jaya, for example, Wan Ahmad's constant give up was: "We can introduce [reforms] though ultimately, a supervision decides."
Competency or complicity?
Then there is a long-standing emanate of gerrymandering as good as unconstitutional malapportionment. Through a years, a EC has redrawn a boundaries of constituencies in ways which have benefited a BN. Is which a mark of an eccentric elect ensuring giveaway as good as satisfactory elections?
And there's been a warding off by a EC to take a BN to charge for opinion shopping through a make use of of taxpayer's monies to offer growth projects usually prior to a polls. This was most not long ago important during a 2011 Sarawak state election. Indeed, it was a EC's realistic warding off to even verbalise up opposite or examine a intensity violations underneath a Elections Offences Act in Sarawak which compelled ! Bersih 2 .0 to organise a huge rally upon 9 July last year.
To be satisfactory to a stream EC leadership, chairperson Abdul Aziz is usually following in a prior EC leadership's footsteps. In 1995, afterwards EC cabinet member Datuk Rashid Abdul Rahman declared there was "nothing wrong in making selecting promises" during an selecting campaign:
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What does a EC's strong ignorance of these selecting breaches tell us? It tells us which even if a EC care have been not Umno members, they have been possibly incompetent or complicit with a BN. And it would seem which they have been for at slightest a past seventeen years.
Rescuing a EC
Many academics have, for a past fifteen years or more, noted how unfair as good as problematic our electoral complement is. In 1996, important Australian educational Harold Crouch wrote: "The Malaysian electoral complement [has been] so heavily installed in favour of a supervision which it is tough to suppose which [it] could be degraded in an election." Ten years later, an additional academic, J Funston, echoed a same sentiment since nothing had changed. Funston wrote which "EC activities often supposing approach benefits to a BN".
How can a EC be rescued? The EC might consider which merely selecting a "non-aligned colour" instead of yellow in a trademark will do a trick. However, a mount! ain of j ustification which a EC is possibly incompetent at a best, or not eccentric at a worst, means much some-more needs to be done.
In a recommendations to a PSC upon Electoral Reform, Bersih 2.0 due multiform measures which would ensure Malaysians had an EC they could have certainty in. One, because can't you have an EC which comprises some-more than usually retired polite servants? If necessary, a series of commissioners can be increased to ensure wider illustration as good as expertise.
Two, some of a issues you face can essentially be addressed by substantiating a Code of Conduct, as practised in India, which spells out most appropriate practices for all parties as good as possibilities during an election. This code of control could additionally be practical to a media so which newsrooms can be pressured to ensure satisfactory coverage of all possibilities as good as parties no have a difference their domestic affiliations.
And three, if a EC is to recover some semblance of credibility, it needs to reclaim a power to have manners underneath Article 113(5) of a Federal Constitution. These manners can be used to demarcate a make use of of public institutions or supervision machine in selecting campaigns.
The question, of course, is either a EC wants to be rescued. If a flourishing justification of some-more than a decade is anything to go by, you disbelief it. And if a EC won't remodel itself of a own volition, what else have been adults left to do? 
[1]
Lim, HH (2005) "Making a complement work: a Election! Commiss ion", in Putucheary, M as good as Othman, N. (ed.), Elections as good as Democracy in Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, p.263.
Jacqueline Ann Surin believes a EC should not be so worried which with electoral reforms, BN will remove power. The elect should be some-more worried which though electoral reforms, BN will come into power usually to have a legitimacy questioned.
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