No opposition party, whether DAP, KeADILan, PAS or PRM want the next general election to be the "dirtiest" in history, for this will deny the ten million voters the full and free opportunity to exercise their constitutional right to shape the political destiny of Malaysia with the beginning of the new millennium.
Furthermore, no opposition party has the ability or capacity to make the next general election the "dirtiest" in history, as only the Barisan Nasional, with its entrenched position of political hegemony in the country, is capable of doing such a thing.
All these decades, the Election Commission has been a failure as far as ensuring that general elections in Malaysia are free, fair and clean as it is powerless to check the electoral abuses of the ruling parties, whether it be the politics of money, unfair monopoly of the media, unprincipled use of the politics of falsehood, fear and blackmail or even blatant abuses of government funds, machinery and resources for Barisan Nasional vote-winning campaign.
For this reason, there should be another commission specifically entrusted with the duty to ensure that the next general election is free, fair, clean and ethical and that it would not degenerate into the "dirtiest" in history.
The former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Musa Hitam would be a suitable candidate to head a Clean, Fair and Ethical Election Commission, which should have the power to receive and investigate complaints from any political party, organisation or citizen about any malpractices inimical to the conduct of a free, fair, clean and ethical election campaign and to make public its investigations.
(29/9/99)