Al Jazeera Bersih Rally Forum – Videos - Nazri, Khairy & Malik Imtiaz – Events; Police Handling & Force, Press Coverage, Grouses Election, Democracy

Malaysiakini lastest report on 'Mystery voters' under EC's spotlight
with another on Hawker: Police broke my leg during rally and
Malaysiakini.tv on 'Mystery voters' under EC's spotlight

Al Jazeera Bersih Rally Forum – Videos - Nazri, Khairy,& Malik Imtiaz – Events; Police Handling& Force, Press Coverage, Grouses Free & Fair Election Democracy

Part I – Forum ( 8 min ) speeded up 10%

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Part 2 – Forum ( 9 min 40s)
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Part 3 – Bersih Rally, Dmo, Protsetorum ( 4 min 11s)


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Part III Go H E R E
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Transcript up ....Go H E R E for Part I & Part 2

This week on 101 East; Malaysia has just seen its biggest protest for almost a decade, with tens of thousands marching to demand electoral reform. Their call was met with tear-gas and water cannon. So is there a need for fundamental change in the south-east Asian country or did the demonstrators get what they deserve?

We talk to leading government figures Minister Dato’ Seri Nazri Abd Aziz ,Khairy Jamaluddin (PM S I L) and one of the nation's top human rights activists Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.

UPDATE (Nov 17 07)= = == = = == =and a brief and slanted account of 101 East Forum fom Malaysia Government controlled News Agency, Bernama

November 16, 2007 00:42 AM

No Need For Institutional Reform To Election System - Nazri

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 (Bernama) -- There is no need for institutional reform to the Malaysian election system as it has worked well for the country in the last 50 years, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said. He, however, admitted that there was still room for improvement, but to say that the system was unfair was not a correct description.
Mohamed Nazri was replying to a question posed by Al Jazeera's anchor Teymoor Nabili of the satellite channel's 101 East Programme in which he was one of three panellists invited to discuss last Saturday's illegal assembly in the city. The other panellists were Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Human Rights lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.
The 30-minute programme touched widely on the issue, including the media's way of handling it. Agreeing to the minister's reply, Khairy said the system just needed some processes to be strengthened. "There is nothing wrong with the system, but some processes need to be strenghtened... but the institution is fine, the system works," he said, pointing out that the Barisan National (BN) had lost Kelantan in the elections.
To Al Jazeera's contention that police had used force to disperse the gathering, Nazri said they did not use excessive force for obvious reasons, especially since they (police) were aware that they were under close scrutiny not only by Malaysians but the whole world. On crowd and traffic control during the gathering, Khairy said the police handled it well. To Imtiaz's allegation that the traffic jams that resulted were caused by police road blocks, Khairy said they were put up because of the demonstration.
He said a similar rally in Terengganu in September had descended into a violent incident. "So, you cannot blame the police for thinking that this (Saturday's gathering) was going to end up the same way," he added. To Nabili's question on the local media's minimum coverage on the gathering, Nazri said he did not think the local media were siding with the government. "The media are free to report anything. In fact, I got all my information (on the gathering) from the (news) papers," he added. Meanwhile, Nazri said changes made by the Election Commission had shown that the government had not turned a deaf ear on issues brought forward by the people.

However, he said, not every issue or grouse voiced (by the people) was necessarily right. "We have a system here... if you have any grouse, channel it to the ballot box. We have an election every five years or less... at the end of the day, we will decide and you must never underestimate the will of the people," added Nazri. Khairy also said that the gathering could not be used as a barometer of the general sentiments of the public.

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Selangor EC probes Sekinchan electoral roll

Pauline Puah, theSUN

SHAH ALAM (Nov 15, 2007): The Selangor Election Office today held a public inquiry to investigate complaints that the electoral roll for the Sekinchan state seat contains names of outsiders. Its director Jailani Abdul Majid said this was the second time this year that such an inquiry was being conducted. The first inquiry was held in the first quarter of the year. He said more than half of the five complainants and 49 respondents or people complained against, attended the public hearing from 11am to 5pm in its office here.
“I am satisfied with the turnout today,” he said in a telephone interview at 5pm.

According to Sekinchan state assemblyman Ng Suee Lim from the DAP, the party had discovered the dubious names listed in the July-September electoral roll. “There were 17 names registered under the address of a barber shop in Sekinchan. There were also 19 names registered under one home address in Site C and another 11 people were registered under one same address in Site B,” he said when met in the Election Office earlier. It is unclear if all the voters belong to the same family, as in the electoral list made available to theSun, almost all the names listed under one roof have different family names. According to procedures, upon receiving the complaints, the Election Office would issue a letter to the complainants and respondents, asking them to appear before a public inquiry.

However, attendance is not compulsory. Under the electoral regulation, in order to change to another constituency, a voter must also change his or her address in the Mykad to prove that he or she has a permanent address in that area. Ng said this showed a loophole in the voter registration system, which allowed people to move to any constituencies.

Three complainants - Loo Kim Yong, Dau Kwee Hong and Wong Ah Chia - went to the inquiry with Ng. The other two --Ng Siew Hong and Loo Kee Lin - were unable to attend the hearing. One respondent who declined to be named said he did not see why he could not change his address in order to move to a new constituency. “I should be able to vote wherever I like. I had changed my address in my Mykad. Why can’t we change our address [in order to vote in a new constituency]?” said the man, who hails from Tanjong Karang, about 15 minutes’ drive from Sekinchan. He claimed that the address he registered under in Sekinchan was his brother’s home – the barber’s shop – and that he did not know why there were so many names registered under the same address.

Ng pointed out that the complaints system was not conducive to efforts to weed out dubious voters. He said under the electoral regulation, a complainant had to pay a maximum of RM200 compensation to a respondent should the former fail to prove the legitimacy of the person’s right to be registered in that constituency.

“They actually don’t encourage people to point out if there are any dubious voters in the electoral roll,” he said. Each complainant can only file complaints against a maximum of 10 voters. The complainant has to pay RM10 for each complaint made. However, Jailani defended the regulation and said it was meant to prevent abuse. “The complainants should make full preparations before they file any complaints. Otherwise, anyone can file complaints as you only need to pay RM10 for each complaint,” he said.
Updated: 07:14PM Thu, 15 Nov 2007

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The following are extracted from the Al Jazerra Video Clip (Part III, (4 min 36 Sec) not loaded yet, but inserted into Part I & Part II as Overlays on Top left ) on the Bersih Rally