Wednesday, May 02, 2012

A Letter seeking for endorsement of our cause for Clean, Free and Fair Election in Malaysia

 ( this is the email letter I drafted and sent to the German Green Party, from top leaders to local branch youth leaders about 1 week before 28th April. But unfortunately no one bothers to reply me, oh well. I wrote most of the text, with also a small help from a template circulated in Bersih Steering committee google email discussion group. I think this is well written, so I put it up here for documentation purpose)


To comrades from Bündnis 90/Die Grünen,

Greetings!

My name is Han, I come from Malaysia and currently I am doing a PhD study in Hannover. I represent the group "Bersih 3.0 Berlin" to seek your support and endorsement for our cause. We are going to hold a protest rally at Siegesäule, Tiergarten on next Satuday (28th April) from 14.00 till 17.00, and we would like to invite your honourable party to join us.

Sorry that I am not able to write well in German, but let me explain further to you in English, about our cause. "Bersih" is a coalition of 84 Non-Governmental Organizations in Malaysia, which is demanding for Clean, Free and Fair Election. “Bersih” means Clean (‘sauber’ in Malay).

[reference: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersih  (DE), http://bersih.org/?page_id=4109  (official introduction)].

We Malaysians for the past 55 years, have been living under the same government ruling coalition, named Barisan Nasional (or BN), uninterruptedly since the independence day on 31st August 1957. Your party would definitely also fancy about this idea (if you could replicate this achievement in Germany). However the sad truth is, this is done because the past general elections were conducted in a very corrupted and biased manner just to guarantee victory for the ruling parties. Our Election Commission (EC), which is required constitutionally to act independently, and without fear or favour to ensure free and fair elections, but instead it has shown itself as a stooge or an instrument of state that works in great favour to the ruling parties so to make sure they could stay in power forever. This is a sham and is considered cheating.  This works against the principle of democracy (1 person 1 vote, equal value) which your party must strongly uphold.

Hence, Bersih has listed out 8 demand points to the government and EC:
1. Clean the electoral roll
2. Reform postal ballot
3. Use of indelible ink
4. Minimum 21 days campaign period
5. Free and fair access to media
6. Strengthen public institutions
7. Stop corruption
8. Stop dirty politics
(further reading about the details of 8 demands: http://bersih.org/?page_id=4111 , and general facts about irregularities and the flaws in our election system at the footnotes)

The recent development in the Parliament confirms our government’s intention to continue to play dirty in the upcoming general election, which is believed to be held rather soon. (http://bersih.org/?p=4751 )

Therefore, on 28th April this coming Saturday at 2pm, Bersih is calling for massive demonstration (a sit-in protest rally) at a size of 500,000 protesters, right in the heart of the capital city Kuala Lumpur at Independence Square (Dataran Merdeka) for comprehensive reform of the electoral process. Bersih reiterates the 8 points of demand and asks the all EC members to resign (http://news.malaysia.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=6073587 ). Simultaneously, there are 64 worldwide locations spreading across 29 countries will be also staging the same protest for Bersih cause (http://www.globalbersih.org/), Berlin and Köln are two of them in Germany.

On the same day same time, Stop Lynas Save Malaysia (Green) campaign will join force with Bersih (Yellow) movement, advocating for a serious health and environmental issue to stop an Australian mining firm named Lynas Corporation Ltd from operating a rare earth refinery at Gebeng, Malaysia. Stop Lynas Save Malaysia first began as a movement that was initiated in early March 2011 to provide a platform for the Kuantan residents to voice their objection over the Malaysia Pahang state government's approval of a RM700 million rare earth processing plant (will be the world's largest) in Gebeng, Kuantan, by Lynas. The campaign raises a lot of concerns and awareness from ordinary Malaysians about the impending toxic radioactive hazard arisen from the purposely poor and careless design waste management by Lynas. Lynas will use 720 tons of concentrated Hydrochloride Acid (sulphuric acid) per day and leave behind 28,000 tonnes of solid waste per year, enough to fill 126 olympic size swimming pools. A by-product of this waste is radioactive Thorium (Th) which is dangerous to human health. It is widely believed that Lynas wanted to bypass the strict environmental regulations and restrictions imposed on them in homeland Australia. Therefore, they are willing to transport the rare earth materials as far as 1000km by land and 4000km by sea, from the mine in Mt Weld, West Australia to Gebeng, Malaysia, just hoping to dump the huge amount of toxic and radioactive waste in Malaysia soil, which might be prohibited to do so in Australia. Oddly enough, Malaysian government welcomes Lynas investment by designating the company with “pioneer” status, and even offering them 12 years tax exemption. This leads to speculations that certain personals in the government at the top level might have been benefited from the under table trade, despite a strong objection and numerous protests from the people nationwide.


Lynas is expected to throw into the operation soon in 2 months, if they are not stopped in time before the first bag of rare earth arrives. Stop Lynas Save Malaysia movement recognizes the importance of Clean, Free and Fair election, as the first step in establishing and advancing the environmental rights, so they decided to join force with Bersih group on 28th April for the massive demonstration. ( http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/anti-lynas-lobby-group-to-join-bersih-rally  )

Hereby I wish your honourable Green Party could help us to voice out about these issues I have just mentioned in order to letting more German people know, and please advocate the cause and stay in solidarity with us, the Green movement and the Bersih movement back in Malaysia. I also wish to invite you to join us at Siegesäule on 28th April. Looking forward to hearing from you regarding this matter.


Yours faithfully,
Chee Han Lim
(Organiser of “Bersih 3.0 Berlin”)

Handy: 017632014363
Bersih 3.0 Berlin Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/266336840122360/  


* Together we can make the earth a better place to live *



Footnotes:
1)  (Bersih 3.0) Wong Chin Huat: How To Clone A Voter In Malaysia
 (the video illustrates the problematic electoral rolls used for Election, and how they can be used to add more votes for the ruling parties)

2) About Bersih movement
BACKGROUND
In 2008 polls, the government's two-thirds majority was broken for the first time in 51 years by an Opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (PR). That parliamentary majority had allowed BN to rewrite the Constitution at will. The next election, expected before June but legally required by April 2013, is a do-or-die scenario for BN, whose highest offices face allegations of corruption and criminality so devastating as to threaten their hold on power.
 Independent inquiries and analysis of electoral rolls have uncovered these facts:
·                    Over 400,000 dubious voters are on the electoral roll, enough to swing 35 federal seats either way and decide if BN reclaims its two-thirds super-majority in parliament, or the Opposition PR becomes the government
·                    31,294 voters have been transferred out of their 2008 constituencies without their consent
·                    42,000 voters whose status as citizens cannot be verified by the National Registration Department are still on the roll
·                    The electoral rolls carry 65,543 voters who are 85 years of age and older, and 1000 voters aged more than 100 years
·                    15,855 voters on the roll have identification card numbers showing they are of a different gender from that listed by the EC
·                    4,500 voters who are spouses of police officers are registered as postal voters in breach of the law
·                    Up to 1,000,000 (one million) Malaysians living overseas cannot vote in general elections from their residential countries because of laws that contravene the Malaysian Constitution. These Malaysians who are denied their constitutional right to lodge their vote from overseas could make up 10 per cent of the electorate. The same laws that prevent these Malaysians from taking part in elections otherwise afford that basic democratic privilege for up to 240,000 other Malaysian citizens, who may be regarded as financially obliged to their government, such as soldiers, government scholars and civil service members, as well as their spouses. Up to 90 per cent of ballots cast through Malaysia's postal voting system is believed to support the incumbent government.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In the 12th general election of 2008, Opposition coalition PR won the prized state of Selangor and wrested control of an economic and symbolic powerhouse in peninsular Malaysia; since 2008, the Selangor electoral rolls have ballooned by 22 per cent (over 340,000 voters) to more than 1.9 million, compared to a national average of 16.3 per cent.
Malaysia has refused access to international election-watch groups ever since the 1990 general election, when polling was observed by the Commonwealth Observer Mission, but the prime minister of that time, Mahathir Mohamed, suppressed their report.

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