ALMOST all voters will accept the Election Commission’s advice that it’s never too late to register to vote. This advice should have been disseminated earlier, but nevertheless the EC is right.

Unfortunately, about 3.8 million Malaysians have not registered to vote as of September last year.

Most of them are young Malaysians above and around the age of 21. This is a shame, and an indictment against our youth who will be our future leaders. It’s sad and perplexing!

Why haven’t the largely young eligible voters exercised their responsibility and duty?

Is it indifference? Do they see no difference between government and the opposition’s policies?

Then why not register to vote for the individual GE14 candidates and not the political parties?

To be fair, not all political leaders are unworthy of our votes. There are many political leaders who are just, fair and dedicated to serve their voters sincerely and selflessly.

Of course there are many “dirty politicians” in Malaysia as in many other parts of the world. But that does not mean that we should abdicate our responsibility to vote on polling day.

Those who indulge in supporting and worse, participate in “undi rosak” or spoiling votes, will do us all patriotic Malaysian voters a great disservice.

Vote spoilers can actually be seen as sabotaging the electoral system. This is most unfair to the rest of us.

So we appeal to the mostly youth who have not registered as voters or who plan to spoil their votes to support and strengthen the electoral process. 

EC can do more

The EC also has to do much more to live up to its duty to the government and the people. It must go all out to win over those who have not registered to vote or who plan to spoil their votes.

The EC could, for instance:

1. Employ many more voter registrars and assistant registrars

2. Step up its promotion campaign to register voters and to discourage vote spoilers.

3. Educate eligible voters to fulfil their responsibility as citizens.

4. EC chairman Mohd Hashim Abdullah should set key productivity indicators (KPIs), especially during these last few months before GE14. The EC should take it as a challenge to achieve higher voter targets and less vote spoiling.

5. The chairman should also ensure that the independence of the EC is maintained to protect the integrity of his own post, his officers and the commission itself. Then public respect for the EC will increase and more will register to vote.

6. Gerrymandering constituencies and malappropriation of votes, should be countered to ensure a free and fair GE14. Then there would be more trust in our election system and greater confidence in our democracy.

To the 3.8 million Malaysians who have not registered to vote, and to those planning to spoil your vote, please don’t let us all down. Please show us your patriotism and lead the way forward for a better Malaysia. – January 29, 2018.

* Ramon Navaratnam is chairman of the Asli Centre of Public Policy Studies.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.