Denying BN deposit in Kajang by-election an “impossibly tall order” but there is no other more appropriate occasion than Kajang by-election for voters to forfeit BN of election deposit

When I first suggested at the fifth Pakatan Rakyat Convention in Shah Alam the previous Saturday (8th March) that the Kajang voters should do the impossible in the by-election by making the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate lose deposit, I had said that this was a “very tall order” but the occasion warranted going for such an extraordinary result.

I want to repeat my call tonight to the Kajang voters in the by-election to perform the impossible to make the Barisan Nasional candidate lose the deposit on polling day on March 23.

I would describe this not just a “very tall order” but an “impossibly tall order”, which is not going to be easily achieved as it would need a super-herculean effort by the Kajang voters on polling day.

There are some 40,000 voters in Kajang state assembly seat. In the 13GE in May last year, the voter turnout for the constituency, comprising 48% Malay voters, Chinese 41%, Indian 10% and others 1%, was as high as 87.9%.

Assuming that the voter turnout in the by-election is 90% (which would go against the trend for by-elections), this would mean a voter turn-out of some 36,000 voters. If the Barisan Nasional is to lose its deposit in the by-election on Sunday, it must not get more than one-eighth of the votes cast, i.e. not more than 4,500 votes while the Pakatan Rakyat/PKR, i.e. Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail must secure more than 31,500 votes.

If this happens, we are not talking about a majority of 6,824 votes which the former PKR Assemblyman Lee Chin Chen won in the six-cornered contest in the 13GE last May, but a humongous, unprecedented and unimaginable majority of some 27,000 votes for Kajang.

In the 13GE in May last year, the PKR candidate won 80 per cent of the Chinese votes, 60% of the Indian votes and 35% of the Malay votes.

Is it possible in the Kajang by-election for Pakatan Rakyat to better on last year’s performance, raising the result to support of 90% of Chinese votes, 70% of Indian votes and 75% of Malay votes?

I am told that BN candidate is sure of getting a “rock bottom” of 8,000 votes – a measure of how difficult and even impossible to get the BN candidate to lose deposit in the Kajang by-election.

But there is no more appropriate occasion in the history of Malaysian elections for over half-a-century than in the Kajang by-election for voters to forfeit the election candidate of the ruling coalition of Barisan Nasional.

When I called on the Kajang voters to forfeit the election deposit of the Barisan Nasional on polling day on March 23, I am not thinking of the official BN candidate from MCA, Chew Mai Fun. I think MCA is quite irrelevant in the Kajang by-election.

Three persons should be the target of the Kajang voters to deny the BN the election deposit on Sunday. Chew Mei Fun is not one of them.

These three persons are led by none other than the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir, who had not only endorsed the MCA candidate in the by-election but continued to act in a most irresponsible, reckless and unstatesmanlike manner in continuing to spew lies and communal poison to pit race against race and religion against religion in Malaysia to further his petty political agenda.

I call on Kajang voters to vote on behalf of 30 million Malaysian voters to perform the “impossibly tall order” of denying the Barisan Nasional candidate of the election deposit in the by-election on Sunday because of the following four noble objectives:

• To save Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from the injustice of a five-year jail sentence which would also have disqualified him as Member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh;
• To save DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh from the injustice of a RM4,000 fine for sedition which would have disqualified him as Member of Parliament for Bukit Gelugor when he should not have been charged in the first place, as he was offering his opinion as the leading constitutional lawyer in the country and senior political leader during the developments of the Perak political coup d’etat in February 2009;
• To save the Malaysian judiciary and system of justice from relapsing into the “Dark Age of Justice” in the late eighties and nineties, when there was complete lack of national and international confidence in a truly independent judiciary and a just rule of law in Malaysia; and
• As patriots, to save Malaysia from the sextuplet of national crisis confronting the Malaysian people and nation since the 13GE last May – nation-building, economic, educational, security, anti-corruption and the system of justice.

I myself have grave doubts that we can achieve a “miracle” in the Kajang by-election where the voters can rise as one to deny the BN the election deposit, but this is the “impossibly tall order” which I am setting before the Kajang voters as a great historic challenge, especially as there is no other more appropriate occasion than the Kajang by-election for voters to forfeit BN of election deposit.

If this can be achieved on polling day, it would be a political earthquake not only of national but also international proportion, as it would be an unexcelled expression of supreme patriotism and nationalism by the Malaysian electorate to love and save Malaysia from extremism, corruption and injustices and to point the way forward for the country towards justice, freedom, prosperity and progress for all Malaysians.