ON 26 January, theSun published an interview (‘EC comes clean’) with Election Commission (EC) Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof. His clarifications on some curiosities – such as why so many supercentenarians are on the rolls despite the statistical improbability that they are all alive – were helpful. It is clear that he would prefer the rules to be changed so that deceased people are more easily struck off, and I sensed frustration when he said that there is nothing he can do about people not changing their voting address as the law requires them to use the MyKad address. Certainly, he is in an unenviable position as Malaysian political parties are seasoned experts at blaming everyone apart from themselves whenever something goes wrong for them: the EC is an easy scapegoat.
I also read that its Deputy Chairman Datuk Wira Wan Ahmad Wan Omar had instructed the Foreign Affairs Ministry to allow all full-time students abroad to vote at overseas missions, saying: “Under the Constitution, we cannot deny the rights to vote by eligible Malaysians. So, our number one focus is our students abroad, no matter whether they are students [sponsored] by the private sector or government-financed students. We have informed the Malaysian embassies.” He is further quoted to have said: “Under the registration law 2002, it states very clearly full-time students abroad with their spouses, are eligible to register as voters if they have proof that they are full-time students.”
First of all, it is absurd that there was ever discrimination between government and private-sponsored students at all: it is a crap basis on which to determine suffrage. The recently announced position is therefore an improvement. Nonetheless it is still absurd that not all citizens residing abroad have the ability to vote, being limited to “military personnel, public servants, full-time students and their spouses”. On this issue the EC says it is “now looking at extending the ballot to other Malaysians at large who are working in international organisations or running businesses overseas”.
While many Malaysians are still unhappy, it seems slowly things are moving in the right direction since the EC is responding to voters’ concerns and more people are being enfranchised. These small steps towards electoral reform could lead to bigger ones. Two things in particular should be adopted as soon as possible: the lowering of the voting age and automatic voter registration.
The advantages of both were made clearly to me as a student living in a hall of residence in London. There was a UK general election in June 2001, and a few days before that I received a polling card informing me how, when and where I could exercise my right to elect my representative in the House of Commons. My hall was popular with many international students, and many who were unaware of this great organisation called the Commonwealth were upset that they too did not receive polling cards. This experience taught me a great deal about imperial history, democracy and the electoral system.
Still, my registration was not automatic as a result of government policy – rather, my university had submitted details of qualifying voters to the electoral registration office. In Malaysia, however, as we retain a hangover from the Emergency called the ‘Identity Card’ (now MyKad) it would be much simpler to automate voter registration.
I have been advocating lowering the voting age for some time now, raising it several times in forums last year, and I have to say it puzzles me that there are a minority of young people who actually oppose it on the grounds that that they are not “mature” enough to vote. Well, if they deem themselves to be, then they can abstain. At our student seminar at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia last month the Deputy Minister for Higher Education, Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah, implied that he would like to see the voting age reduced to 18, to cheers from the audience.
There are many other questions on electoral reform that can be asked but so far have not. Other Westminster democracies have frequently considered fundamental questions like how their chambers in Parliament should be composed. In the UK now, not only is the issue of House of Lords reform still on the agenda, there will soon be a referendum on overhauling the electoral system for the House of Commons (from First Past the Post to Alternative Vote).
I believe that we should start asking these bigger questions as well. That is why IDEAS is tackling parliamentary reform as one of our key research areas this area, alongside education, and the first area of interest, which you will hear more about from me later, is the Dewan Negara.