A better tomorrow can wait!

The promised new dawn did not appear. The sweet taste of victory was
crashed by the bitterness of defeat for PR in yesterday General
Election. Was the outcome a complete loss? To a long-time political
observer like myself, the outcome proves that things always turned out
better than we expected but not as good as we hoped for. Yes, the
outcome was better than what I had expected six months ago. And, yes,
it was less than what I had hoped for on the morning of May 5. The
optimist would see it as a cup that's half-filled while the pessimist
will see it as a cup that's half-empty. Which one are you today?



If
you choose to look at the bright side of things, there are quite a few
things that we can be happy about despite the electoral upset. We can
see that Malaysians are smart & brave voters who are not easily
intimidated by threat nor fell for empty promises. That's why the
majority of Malaysians were not swayed from their conviction to vote
for a change. They voted by PR. However, their wish for change did not
translate into the change that they desired because our electoral
system was not well-designed. This poorly designed system violates one
of the basic tenets of democracy: one-man, one-vote. The representation
system in Malaysia is skewered in favor of small constituencies at the
expense of large constituencies. This led to an unusual situation today
where we have two winners in GE13: BN, the official winner of yesterday
General Election because it has secured more seats in Parliament as
well as its rival, PR because it has won the popular vote. This is not
an ideal situation and it should be rectified immediately.


The
dissatisfaction among the PR supporters is not confined to only the
failure of the electoral system to pick the winner of the popular vote
as the winner of the election. There were also seriously concern that
the election could have been stolen from their party or coalition due
to a few highly suspicious incidents. These include a large number of
flights from Sabah & Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia that seems to
suggest an effort to plant voters into strategic areas; an indelible
ink that washed off easily; the sudden appearance of ballot boxes at
counting halls; and mysterious power outage during ballots counting.
All these raised doubts that the election could have been compromised.
Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of PR has announced this morning that he
would not recognize the outcome of this general election.


This
brings me to a very similar incidence which happened 13 years ago: the
US Presidential Election of 2000 between the then Republican Texas
Governor George W. Bush and Democrat Vice President Al Gore. In the
battleground state of Florida, there were a large number of irregular
ballots that were rejected by Republican electoral officials in
contravention of the American acceptable practice for ballots counting.
The rejected ballots could tip the race to Vice President Al Gore. More
importantly, the outcome of the vote in Florida would determine not
only who would get the entire slate of electoral votes, it would also
determine the winner of the US Presidential Election. After a prolonged
standoff and an unusual intervention by a very partisan US Supreme
Court, the state of Florida was awarded to President George W. Bush.
His rival, Vice President Al Gore, who actually won the popular vote
but fell short on the electoral vote, graciously conceded defeat. Al
Gore did so because he felt that a prolonged fight would be harmful to
America.


Today
we are faced with the same situation. Should Anwar challenge the
Election Commission and the outcome of this election? Yes and No. Yes,
he should fight, not only for himself or PR, but to ensure that the
sanctity of the electoral process is not violated. The problem is how
to achieve this goal without dividing the people and the country. In
the end, I believe that Anwar must sit down with Najib to come to a
win-win solution. For the good of the country, Anwar Ibrahim would have
to concede defeat gracefully. In return, Najib should magnanimously
acknowledge Anwar's sacrifice and promise to set up an independent
commission to look into the conduct of the General Election of 2013 and
to make recommendations for improvement in the following areas:
1. A better Standard Operating Procedures for the conduct of any election
2. A System of Representation that reflects the democratic rule of one-man, one-vote
3. The Right of Access to the mainstream media by all political parties
4. The list of permissible conducts by a caretaker government
5. Rules governing campaign financing and the giving out of inducement to voters (be it monetary or non-monetary gift)


I
urge all PR supporters to remain calm and to accept the outcome of
yesterday General Election as a continuous process of improvement in
our system of government. To have a good government is not a
destination but a long, arduous journey with many bitter setbacks and
few sweet successes. Last night, we experienced both the sweetness and
the bitterness of a closely-contested election. Let's continue in this
journey together for a better tomorrow for all Malaysians.


Author : Alex Lu