The Najib government, through the Minister for Rural and Regional Development and UMNO Supreme Council member who hopes to rise up to become UMNO National Vice President, has expressed its opposition to any independent international bodies to monitor the 14th general election, claiming that is an attempt at inviting foreign interference in the country’s administration.

Sabri Yaakob is talking rubbish, but what is significant is that this statement was made after the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had proudly declared that there would be no cheating in the 14th General Election.

If there will be no cheating in the 14GE, then why is the Malaysian government afraid of international scrutiny of the electoral process in the 14GE?

Sabri Yaakob is gravely ignorant or misinformed when he alleged that the proposal for independent foreign observers is meant to to cast the Election Commission in a bad lighr as the Election Commission had handled thirteen general elections “without any issues”.

Sabri Yaakob should read the Malaysian Insight report today on “Dr Mahathir allowed foreign observers to monitor 1990 polls”.

I met Mahathir in the Prime Minister’s Office on July 9, 1990 on the Commonwealth Observers to the Sept. 1990 General Election.

Memory can be faulty after 28 years, but the following is from my media statement dated 10th July 1990 on my hour-long meeting with Mahathir on the Commonwealth Observers for the 1990 General Election:

“In my hour-long meeting with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, in the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday, I gave Dr. Mahathir the DAP’s views on the commonwealth Observer Mission.

“Dr. Mahathir did not agree that the Commonwealth Observer Mission should be invited in the name of all political parties, and that an all-party committee should be established to handle all matters concerning the Mission.

“He agreed with the DAP that members of the Commonwealth Observer Mission should come from countries with parliamentary democracies and general elections which are recognised internationally, and not from countries ruled by military juntas or one-party or no-party states.

“He agreed that the Commonwealth Observer Mission should have the widest brief to observe that the next general elections are ‘free, fair, clean and honest’. He is of the view that it is up to the Mission to decide on its modus operandi, and said that the government would not put any restriction or limitation on the activities of the Mission. The Government would give the Mission every co-operation and furnish it with whatever information it needed.

“In my meeting with Dr. Mahathir, I stressed that a ‘free, fair, clean and honest general elections’ does not merely mean the voting process on polling day, but the whole elections process including the media coverage, access for completing political parties to reach out to the voters like public rallies and public meetings, campaign funds, and all aspects to enable the voter to exercise his right to vote in an informed and intelligent manner.”

Is Najib prepared to meet a delegation from Pakatan Harapan on the Foreifn Observer Missions for the 14GE, whether Commonwealth, European Union or United Nations?

In fact, I call on the Election Commission to conduct a deep soul-searching why it has fallen so abysmally from a world-class credible Election Commission when the country achieved independence six decades ago to the lowly position today, when Malaysia’s ranking on the Electoral Integrity Index is the lowly position of No. 142 out of 158 countries, lower than Indonesia ranked No.68, Singapore ranked 94 and Philippines ranked 101!

To re-establish its world-class position in terms of credibility, authority and professionalism, I would call for the establishment of a bipartisan Parliamentary Select Committee on the Election Commission’s 2018 constituency redelineation proposals which should conduct national hearings in the Peninsular states and to submit its report to Parliament within a month, before any parliamentary voting on the Election Commisions’ Redelineation Report.

Would Najib agree to this proposal?

(Media Conference after the DAP kopitiam dialogue near Pasar SPPK, Ipoh on Saturday, 3rd February 2018 at 9 am)