Bebaskah SPR dan pilihanraya?

Pengerusi Suruhanjaya Pilihanraya di dalam wawancaranya bersama Malaysiakini telah memberi beberapa pandangan yang agak menarik untuk kita sebagai rakyat Malaysia berfikir sesuatu tentang perjalanan SPR dan juga pilihanraya secara keseluruhannya. Adakah perlu untuk diboikot sahaja pilihanraya seperti yang pernah dikatakan oleh Hishamuddin Rais?

Pilihanraya di negara ini masih banyak cacat celanya seperti SPR yang tidak bebas sepenuhnya, penyalahgunaan kuasa parti pemerintah dan sebagainya.

Aku melihat untuk merubah keadaan ini, rakyat Malaysia sendiri yang perlu memainkan peranannya melalui pelbagai pendekatan yang difikirkan wajar. Memboikot pilihanraya walaupun satu langkah yang baik, namun aku merasakan ia agak sukar untuk dilaksanakan dan hanya perlu apabila terdapat manipulasi dan penipuan undi yang sangat ketara.

Buat masa ini, aku tidak nampak akan wujudnya satu sistem pilihanraya dan juga suasana kehidupan yang membolehkan rakyat Malaysia mengundi dengan bijak, dan selagi itu jugalah sebahagian rakyat Malaysia terpaksa hidup di bawah kerajaan yang dipilih oleh majoriti pengundi yang melambatkan proses kemodenan dan kematangan fikiran.

Berikut adalah beberapa petikan dari wawancara tersebut;

Malaysiakini: This coming general election will be your first as EC chairperson. Will there be any changes?

Abdul Rashid: I found a lot of people misunderstood EC. We do try to create changes. We have adopted - from the British - a simple (voting) system because 65 percent of Malaysians (then) were illiterate.

The British thought, ‘we’d give you a simple system’ - which means that people go to the booth, vote for the candidate they want, and the winner will be determined on the basis who past the post first, even with one vote. So, there were candidates (in the past) who had won by one vote, seven votes...

This (first-past-the-post) system - if you talk about electoral democracy - is not a fair system because it does not allow the smaller parties the chance to win. This is because the smaller parties have no resources, no money, no manpower.

So, because of that (the lack of resources), they (small parties) were not really able to explain (their policies). And of course, the mainstream newspapers have no appetite for them and that is why they will not be able to tell the people their ideologies.

Parti Rakyat (Malaysia, PRM) for example, they have very good programmes, but their programmes are not accepted by people. (Their programmes are) socialist in nature. Dr Syed Husin Ali (PRM president) - his programmes are beautiful but he hasn’t got the resources. No money. Well, a lot of people give money to political parties, but they only give to those who can provide returns. That is a fact [laughs]. I think that is an acceptable practice everywhere in the world.

But will EC consider recommending to the government to bring in the proportionate system to promote a fairer electoral environment?

I don’t know whether our recommendation will be considered or not. Actually (our duty) is not to recommend. There must be a dictation from outside. People must agitate. It is for the people to ask.

Political parties don’t seem to mind very much (about first-past-the-post system). I don’t see much request for any change. Most political parties prefer this system - probably they want to have a taste of it when they are in power, but they never seemed to be getting into power [laughs].

But this simple system has brought us a lot of good. We have got to admit that we need a very stable government. And with that system, a party got to - at any one time - gain the majority to form a stable government, provided that the government is a responsible government.

Still, if you talk in terms of legitimacy, this government is very legitimate, in the sense that people have been able to exercise their right to vote - whether they know or not what they are doing in the polling booth, is another story.

I have my doubts in the beginning when I saw old folks or uneducated lots going to vote. They were merely following instructions, meaning that they did not know why they voted for the candidate. Maybe because somebody say this candidate is good, that he attends kenduri, visit the dead. Or maybe they know this party is good and it must be voted in.

But the country has changed, the rate of literacy is now probably 99 percent - people are at least able to read and write. There is a need to change... Earlier, it is understood that we need a stable government and that the simple (first-past-the-post) system help us gain that.

Aku menyokong penuh perubahan sistem pilihanraya kepada proportionate system yang bagi aku lebih adil dan tepat pada masanya kerana pembangunan telah banyak dijalankan hasil sistem pilihanraya yang diguna pakai sekarang.

Why do you say that the last general election was based on emotions?

There was a lot of emotions! It was the time he (jailed ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim) was just charged (for corruption and sodomy). It was the reformasi time... it worked up people’s feelings.

Some people don’t even know why they are throwing stones in the street. That, I know (because) I asked some people who had been doing that. I asked why did you throw stones (and they replied) ‘Oh, we don’t want Anwar to be victimised.’

(There was) a lot of talk of wrongdoings, which made people angry... real emotions. In the kampung (villages), the old folks shed tears for Anwar - they claimed that he was victimised.

But these involved mostly Malay voters?

Yes, it involved mainly the Malays.

The Chinese appeared to support BN...

The Chinese... because of education. They know what needs to be considered when exercising their voting rights. We would like to have the whole country having this kind of attitude. I like talking to them (Chinese voters), I go down to talk to them... They are very secretive (about their votes), which means they do their calculation first [laughs].

Aku kurang bersetuju dengan pendapat ini kerana aku melihat terdapat banyak faktor yang menentukan bagaimana orang Melayu dan Cina untuk mengundi.

Pendidikan bukanlah merupakan faktor dominan orang Cina di negara ini kerana bagi aku trend mereka mengundi adalah dipengaruhi oleh pelbagai perkara seperti kepentingan ekonomi, kestabilan, pengaruh UMNO dan PAS dan sebagainya.

Terdapat ramai masyarakat Cina yang menganggap pilihanraya tidak begitu penting kepada mereka kerana walau apapun parti yang diundi, mereka tidak dapat menentukan kerajaan yang hendak dipilih berbanding dengan orang Melayu.

Senario ini akan tetap berlarutan selagi mana politik perkauman dan agama masih wujud di negara ini.

How can the commission improve the procedure in monitoring election expenditure?

In terms of law, we are restrained from doing a lot of things. This is the commission which has been established by the nation not to be a fully independent commission .

But isn’t the EC meant to be an independent body?

No, never ever. You look at the constitution, what does it say? That there shall be a commission that enjoys the public confidence. It does not say ‘an independent commission’.

But to enjoy public confidence, you need to be independent.

Not necessarily so. It means that we have to do our job but the basic guidelines are that we must conduct a free and fair election. (This does) not necessarily mean you are independent. How could you be independent? There is no one EC in this world that is truly independent.

You can never escape from the government of the day from being involved in elections. Whether the EC is seen to be independent - fair and free - depends on one important fact: how tolerant is the ruling party? In most Western countries, the party in power is tolerant. They take criticism openly. Here, we have not come to that level.

So you do get pressure from the government?

Not necessarily pressure. You just cannot implement anything without having to be interfered (by the government). For example, during election campaigns, you want to see all political parties to move freely. All candidates must be given that freedom. Can that really happen?