THE PREROGATIVE OF CHOICE

by Goh Keat Peng

This we have to admire about the more established democracies: that there is no monopoly about which party will form the government of any level. The two or more main parties or coalitions of parties have reasonable chance. The people are not saddled effectively with just one choice. In recent times, the world has witnessed a change of government in Britain and just days ago, the house of represenatives in the US has changed hands. Just two years after a very popular president was swept into office, congress is now in the hands of the opposition.

This should be the case in most things in life. An exception being family. We can of course choose who to marry or whether to marry at all. But we cannot choose which family we wish to be born in. This is of course because you can’t make choices before you have come into existence in the first place!

Kak Wan, what do you want me to do with these ballot papers?

In my ‘PKR, and its ballot papers, up for sale’ post yesterday, I had said that I was going to meet an individual last night who had contacted me to say that he was in possession of PKR ballot papers for use in the ongoing party elections, and that he would pass the same to me as evidence of his claim.

In fact, that meeting was scheduled to take place this afternoon, but the individual was extremely concerned that I would be followed and that he might be identified by ‘interested’ parties, and so, at his request, I said that the meeting was to take place last night.

I met him about an hour ago.

He was very nervous.

He showed me a stack of ballot papers. They comprised ballot papers for the post of Deputy Presidency, Vice Presidents and Majlis Pimpinan Pusat.

The ballot papers for the Deputy Presidency and Vice Presidents were all serialised whilst the one for the MPP were not.

He had about 100 copies of the ballot papers in all.

I asked if that was all he had.

He  replied that if I could wait, he could go back and meet me again later at another location with another 1,000 or more if I wanted.

I asked if I could have the 100 or so ballot papers that he had with him.

He offered to give me one of each provided I promised to blank out the serial numbers as he did not want to get any one into trouble.

I asked who those people might be.

He did not want to reply.

I asked him to explain to me how possession of these ballot papers might be used in the elections.
He explained that the central election committee returning officer could manipulate the list of members attending at the ongoing elections, where voter turnout is low, adjust it upwards and stuff additional ballot papers into the ballot box. Worse, it seems that at some elections, there is not even an attendance list to reflect the number of members attending to vote. This makes it even easier to stuff additional ballot papers into the ballot box.

Non-halal food: Teacher hauled over the coals

By Joseph Tawie
KUCHING: A senior assistant of a primary school here who allegedly caned a 10-year-old boy for bringing non-halal food to the school got a roasting from angry Sarawakians.

Politicians – Barisan Nasional as well as the opposition – joined the ordinary people in condemning his act of “religious extremism” and want him punished.

The senior teacher of St Thomas Primary School allegedly caned the boy, Basil anak Beginda, for bringing fried rice with pork sausages to eat in school during recess.

Land Development Minister James Masing said Malaysians must respect freedom of religion as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

PKR polls: Rivals upset with candidate's tactics

By FMT Staff
UPDATED KOTA KINABALU: As PKR members vote for national leadership for the second weekend today, supporters of deputy presidential candidates Zaid Ibrahim and Mustaffa Kamil Ayub are crying foul over the manner their rival Azmin Ali is conducting his campaigns.

“We are quite concerned with what's happening in Sabah today. We will see how things turn out before deciding what to do next,” said Firdaus Christopher, Zaid's special assistant.
The same sentiments were expressed by Mustaffa's men.

“We want the party to ensure that the election process is conducted in a just and fair manner. Right now that is not happening,” said an aide to Mustaffa.

The race for the deputy's post is fiercely contested among the three candidates. Vice-president Azmin, who has the backing of party supremo Anwar Ibrahim, is leading by about 500 votes over his closest challenger Zaid.

Azmin steals a march on rivals in Sabah

By Rahmah Ghazali and Fazy Sahir

PETALING JAYA: The battle to wrest the deputy presidency post went into a crucial stage today when Azmin Ali led the second round of party elections in Sabah, creating a neck-and-neck race with rival Zaid Ibrahim.

Azmin, who is now leading with 1,060 votes from eight divisions from the state, breezed through leaving behind his contender Zaid, who bagged 824 votes, with a majority of 236 votes.

Meanwhile, third contender Mustaffa Kamil Ayub lagged behind with only 40 votes.

Azmin's performance was impressive despite his “unpopularity” in Sabah after a fallout with several divisional leaders who demanded his removal as the party state chief last year.