I had commended the Election Commission Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman for fixing a 13-day campaign period for the 12th general election, which is longer than the previous five general elections between 1986 to 2004, i.e. 10 days each in 1986, 1990 and 1995, nine days in 1999 and eight days in 2004.

This is however only a small step towards conducting a free,fair and clean general election and there are many areas which the Election Commission Chairman must address to ensure that the Malaysian election system can be internationally acclaimed as of world-class standard in terms of its efficiency and being fair, free and clean.

For a start, I call on Rashid to address two issues:

Firstly, make nomination for the general election a disqualification-free process. At present, preparing for nomination is as traumatic as preparing for a major legal case for lawyers or sitting for higher degree examinations in universities.

Let us have a disqualification-free nomination process whereby no proposed candidate could be disqualified for any technical mistake in filling up the nomination form. There should only be disqualification of candidates for fraudulent claims but not for technical mistakes which should be allowed to be corrected during or even after the nomination.

Let the voters decide who should be their elected representative, whether in Parliament or the State Assembly, and this power should not be usurped or denied by Returning Officers on the basis of nitpicking complaints by anyone.

Secondly, to ensure that a higher percentage of eligible voters are placed on the Electoral Roll and can exercise their constitutional right to vote in the 12th general election instead of the present low figure of 70% when it should be nearer 90% of all eligible voters!
Although the voters’ registration for the last quarter of last year was gazetted last week, a few states would not be able to use the voters’ registration for the last quarter as the Election Commission does not have the time to process and decide on the objections.

This is an unacceptable excuse. More than a decade ago, I had told Parliament that in New Zealand, a voter can register on the eve of polling and cast his vote the next day. Why is the Malaysian voter registration system so backward and retrogressive that we cannot ensure that every one who had registered in the last quarter of last year could be placed on the Electoral Roll to vote in the 12th general election on March 8, with the whole process deciding on the objections completed before the polling day?

In fact, the Election Commission should go one step further – to be able to carry out the voter registration exercise for the next two weeks to ensure that all those who had registered between 1.1.2008 and 29.2.2008 could vote in the March 8 election. Is this beyond the efficiency and capability of the Election Commission?

With Parliament’s dissolution, the entire Cabinet is a caretaker Cabinet which should confine itself to the day-to-day administration duties and not abuse its powers in the misuse of government positions, machinery, resources and public funds for party electioneering purposes.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who had launched the National Integrity Plan to demonstrate his seriousness to promote and uphold a government of accountability and integrity, cannot to keep his silence on whether he accepts or rejects the entire concept of caretaker government between Parliament and the election of a new government.

If Abdullah is serious about the National Integrity Plan, he should publicly ground all government aircrafts, vehicles and facilities to ensure that they will not be misused by any Cabinet Minister – including himself – for partisan electioneering purposes.

Is Abdullah prepared to prove that despite all his broken promises about accountability, transparency and integrity in promoting good governance in the past four years, he will at least “walk the talk” of his National Integrity Plan as a “caretaker Prime Minister” and stop caretaker Ministers from abusing government resources, facilities, manpower and funds for partisan electioneering purposes?

Is he prepared to sack caretaker Ministers who refuse to honour his National Integrity Plan and continue to abuse their positions and misuse government resources, facilities, manpower and public funds for partisan electioneering purposes in the 12th general election?

I call on Abdullah to give a 24-hour ultimatum to sack the “caretaker” Information Minister, Datuk Zainuddin Maidin unless he stops abusing and misusing his caretaker responsibilities and put an immediate stop to the abuse and misuse of the RTM and Information Department as the propaganda tool of the Barisan Nasional to spread lies and falsehoods against the opposition.

Let Abdullah prove that the Islam Hadhari he propounds stands for accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance!

All NGOs, professional bodies, community organizations, societies and citizens should play a pro-active role in 12th general election campaign to lodge police or ACA report for every instance of abuse of power by a caretaker government – as when they see a “caretaker” Minister misusing government aircraft, vehicle, public servants like drivers, public funds for partisan electioneering purpose.

Let the police and ACA be flooded by public citizen reports of abuses and misuses of power up and down the country – which tantamount to electoral corruption – during the election campaign if caretaker Ministers flout their caretaker responsibilities.

Let Malaysian voters send a clear and loud message to the Caretaker Prime Minister that they take the National Integrity Plan (NIP) seriously – regardless of whether Abdullah and the Barisan Nasional leadership take the NIP seriously – and the first real step to implement the NIP is for an end to all abuses and misuses of power and public funds and resources by the “caretaker” government and “caretaker Ministers” in the 12th general election between dissolution of Parliament till Polling Day on 8th March 2008.

The Police, and ACA should demonstrate their impartiality, efficiency and professionalism by setting up special units all over the country to receive and act on such reports – including the arrest of caretaker Ministers who abuse their “caretaker” responsibilities.

The Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail should also show his commitment to the National Integrity Plan by acting efficiently and promptly on Police and ACA reports and investigations on abuses by the “caretaker government” to bring every case to court for prosecution.

I have filed action to ask the Kuala Lumpur High Court for an urgent hearing of my case asking for a declaration that the government is bound by the ethics and principles of a caretaker government between Parliament’s dissolution and the election of a new government – and my counsel and DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh has asked the court for an urgent hearing of the case before nomination on 24th February as otherwise, the question would be academic and the court prove again to be a failure to be the last bulwark of Malaysian citizens in the defence of their constitutional rights and liberties.

(Speech by Lim Kit Siang at the launching of the DAP Menglembu election operations centre in Batu Gajah parliamentary constituency on Saturday 16th February 2008 at 9 am)