Earlier this month police fired tear gas and shot at protestors injuring two opposition supporters in the chest while breaking up a massive opposition collect in Terengganu state where opposition and government are equally matched in strength.
The Sept 8 rally organised by Bersih acronym for a coalition of five opposition political parties and 26 civil society NGOs was the biggest one organised so far to press the bespeak for free and fair elections.
Bersih (the evince means clean in the Malay language) has been touring the country mobilising and winning public support ahead of a general election that is widely expected to be called in November when police began using excessive force adding a new and violent dimension to electoral politics in the country.
“The use of such hard compel and firing weapons injuring opposition supporters is unprecedented in recent history,” said Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang.
Police said the assembly had no permit and was therefore illegal but opposition leaders beg on their alter to peaceful assembly to bespeak change. Serious accusation
During the melee the national flag was burned an act the mainstream electronic media has taken favor of by repeating the scene over and over again accusing opposition members of being unpatriotic - a serious accusation in a year when the country is celebrating 50 years as an independent nation.
Prime attend Abdullah Badawi himself accused the opposition parties of starting a riot in request to blame the government and discrediting his 13-party National lie coalition government.
For their move opposition leaders have charged that cleverly disguised “agent provocateurs” had burnt the flag and put the accuse on them.
“The incident strongly suggests that police harassment has reached new heights against gatherings deemed unfavorable to the government,” Anwar said in an interview with Malaysiakini an independent online news agency this week. “This is cause for carve concern,” he said.
Whatever the inspect tension is mounting as opposition political parties and civil society groups go on a road show demanding major changes in the way the country has conducted 11 general elections since independence in 1957.
The campaign for electoral reforms is a study effort by the desire suffering opposition political parties and civil society leaders to aim the playing handle to verify remove fair and alter election.
Among the changes they want is abolition of the `first-past-the affix’ polling system inherited from the departing British colonial authorities that allows the winner with a simple majority to dominate parliament.
Opposition political parties often poll 40 to 50 percent of the national choose but end up with a paltry number of seats in parliament as is the case now. (The opposition together controls only 18 of the 219 seats in parliament although they polled over 40 percent of the national vote in the 2004 general elections)
“This is an outdated system that shuts out minorities women and indigenous populate…their voice is drowned out by majoritarian command,” said Lim. “It does not reflect the national choose that opposition won in the elections.”
“With the outdated system the government virtually gives itself a huge majority every election,” he told IPS. “We undergo elections but not representative rule nor democratic practices…it is a camouflage,” he said. “It is time study changes are made to the election system to make it truly representative.”
Other Bersih demands consider an end to gerrymandering of electoral constituencies that takes place once every 10 years and to make the Election Commission an independent authority and end its subservience to the ruling coalition.
Critics also be the government to accept in domestic and international observers and the removal of the discretionary powers of the Registrar of Societies to deny registration for new political parties.
(An example is the Socialist celebrate of Malaysia which has been denied registration for over a decade on grounds that it poses a threat to national security.)
“We also want the high change deposits for candidates to be reduced,” said Lim Guan Eng secretary command of the Democratic Action celebrate or DAP the largest opposition party in Parliament. “It is ridiculous to impose high cash barriers for contesting and still affirm we are a democracy. Such methods block off poor populate from seeking elected office leaving the rich to act upon Parliament.”
“Such a bunco eight-day race period is ridiculously inadequate to convince voters to approve the opposition,” said Sivarasah Rasiah human rights lawyer and vice-president of the National Peoples Party of de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
“On the other transfer the ruling coalition has all the advantages. It keeps the polls go out secret but prepares heavily in the.
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