I cannot believe this.
Before the elections, there was a big issue about the use of Indelible Ink. Apparently, there was a proposal to paint the nails of voters with indelible ink so they could not go to other centres and vote again. It was to weed out phamtom voters.
Then, a few days before the elections on 8 March 2008, in a sudden about turn, the Election Commission made an announcement that no indelible ink would be used. This was after many discussions were held with muslim clerics to decide if it was against Islam to have the ink on the hands. Apparently the religion forbids it when praying so it was a big issue then.
When the EC announced that Indelible Ink was not going to be used, there was a huge hue and cry. It was disclosed that RM2.4 MILLION had been spent to bring in the bottles of Indelible Ink and the lame reason given then was because they had taken “legal advise” and that there were people trying to sabotage the ink thing.
Today, we read in the news that it was the CABINET that made the decision NOT to use the Indelible Ink. This decision was made a week before polling day. My question is, how on earth did the cabinet make this decision when they were merely a caretaker government? Aren’t all issues relating to the elections the domain of the EC? What business does the government have telling the EC what to do? This just goes to prove what everyone was saying all along i.e. that the EC is not independant.
Here are more lame statements being made by the government:-
Abdullah said the Cabinet believed that the election process would go on smoothly and all eligible voters could cast their votes if the indelible ink was not used.
“It was only a suggestion we made to the EC chairman. It was up to him to think it over and agree or to proceed with the original decision to use the ink,” he said.
When the decision to scrap the ink was announced at the eleventh hour of the general election, Barisan Nasional leaders, including Abdullah, had said that they wanted an explanation from the EC on why it was doing away with the indelible ink.
On why the Government did not come clean on the indelible ink in the first place, Abdullah said that if anything tainted the voting process it would be the Government that would be blamed.
And this is what the EC chairman said:-
Earlier, EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said the Cabinet decided not to approve the proposal to use indelible ink “on the day of Parliament dissolution, on Feb 13”.
“They did not approve because of two very strong reasons, and I agreed with them over those reasons.
“One was security and the other was law, relating to Article 119 of the Federal Constitution, which states that it is the fundamental right of a person to vote,” he told the press after opening the National Seminar on Elections 2008: Democracy at Work here yesterday.
Asked if he tried to convince the Cabinet otherwise, Abdul Rashid said “he could not” , adding: “But I took responsibility for it.”
“I was told that the Cabinet had been briefed about an attempt by PAS, that they had bought some ink from Thailand, and were going around to mark old voters. And when Umno came to know, they also went and bought the ink. This was given to me in black and white by the police,” he said.
On May 6, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said in a Parliament reply to DAP’s Batu Gajah MP Fong Po Kuan that police did not find evidence of smuggled indelible ink and statements made by complainants and witnesses were rumours.
I don’t know WTF is happening. At the rate things are going, I won’t even dare keep any designer jewelry in the house. If its stolen, the police might very well point their fingers are phantom intruders, then at me and finally have to admit that it went missing in their care or something equally drastic. Do you trust the BN Government after this latest debacle?
I don’t. I’m so ashamed to say that I ever trusted them in the first place!