Two opportunities, one missed

Two opportunities, one missed

23 November 2011

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had a chance to do something extra special that can be viewed positively by many people. He could have supported a Constitutional Amendment to enable the automatic registration of all Malaysians who are eligible to vote. The Opposition would have had no choice but to support this move, and as its promoter Najib would have helped change the entire political landscape as we know it.
Young people are a major factor in the selection of national leaders—and this is how it should be. The party that has the support of the young will win. We have heard repeatedly that the Barisan Nasional now has the support of young Malaysians, and this is all the more reason why the Prime Minister should have supported a proposal for automatic voter registration.
Unfortunately the Government has rejected any such notion. In the Dewan Rakyat recenty, Deputy Minister in the PM’s Department Datuk V.K. Liew said: “If automatic registration is implemented and if there is a General Election, it is feared that the voter turnout will be low because many will not be able to return to the addresses registered to cast their votes, and indirectly affect the democratic process practised. Based on this, the Government has no plan yet to register voters automatically.”
Surely it is incumbent on the voter to ensure his or her current address is kept up to date with the authorities. It is not the business of Government to pre-empt what the voter might or might not do. As it is, “low voter turnout” is an unfounded fear. Furthermore, this is an admission that the problem of incorrect addresses is rampant. The Government can solve this problem quickly by making it easy for Malaysians to update their details at offices of the National Registration Department (NRD). If we made updating one’s details a part of automatic voter registration, we could solve both the problems of inaccurate addresses and voter registration in one swoop.
In any case, a country can be governed only with the consent of the majority, and the young are the majority of this country. In a mature parliamentary democracy, both the government of the day and the government-in-waiting work hand-in-hand to ensure continuity and the realisation of the national interest.
Both sides work together on key issues despite having major political or ideological differences on other matters. The Government and Opposition must at least be on speaking terms. Parliamentarians must be free to vote according to conscience on key matters of national policy. The people should know that to appreciate their rights fully, they should understand the democratic responsibilities that come with those rights. One of these is to be a registered voter, and if all it takes is to keep one’s details updated at the NRD then all we need to do is educate voters to do so.
We haven’t achieved this level of political maturity in Malaysia yet, but automatic voter registration is an important first step in the right direction. The Prime Minister could have personally started the process of evolution by working towards achieving bipartisan support for the Constitutional Amendment to effect this, while the Opposition would have refused to participate only at risk of being deliberately obstructive or by putting selfish party interests ahead of national need.
This is a missed opportunity, but it is not too late to reconsider.
The second positive thing that Najib can do is to engage with Pakatan Rakyat leaders on the date of the General Election. The Prime Minister should make sure that we do not waste too much time and money on elections. We cannot afford to have separate elections twice—one for Parliament and another for the State Assemblies—so the Prime Minister should sit down with PR leaders and agree on a suitable date for the joint dissolution of both Federal Parliament and the State Assemblies.
Najib need not disclose the exact date of when he will call for the elections. This is his prerogative as Prime Minister and he can preserve this. At the very least, however, he and the PR leaders should agree on a general time frame. The people will appreciate such a gesture and the civil cooperation between the opposing sides will reflect well on the Najib’s leadership.
The country is clearly going on a downward spiral where politics is concerned. Everyone is worried only by party unity or party loyalty. Few on either side of the divide think of national unity and national loyalty, which party politics should serve.
There is a time and place for talk and politics, grandstanding and campaigning. But now is the time for good governance, sound and transparent administration.
Now is the time for leadership in the many difficult issues