Chairman of EC should resign

This post is based on a Star report obtained from Malaysiakini corner for Berita Malaysia.

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This is the civil servant that a BN or rather UNMO-dominated Parliament changed the sacred Constitution in order to allow him an extra year or two to serve - the chairman of the Election Commission, Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.

Now, he has the damn cheek to want the power to sue critics who make allegations against the EC. Basically he wants to silence anyone who raises complaints against him and the several unexplained decisions and actions of the EC.

He winched: “There are those who take to the streets (telling lies) and getting the publicity, and we (the Election Commission) suffer.

“If we have the power to sue, we can take action against those who spread lies without evidence.”

For all the trouble Parliament was dragged through to extend his service above the mandatory retirement age, he still hasn’t a clue about the duty of the public service.

The public service is the servant of the public. Any citizen or even a foreigner served badly or otherwise (meaning even if the service provided is fair) by the public service has the right to criticise and even make accusations against a serving public servant, provided the accusations are related to the official duties of the public servant.

The public servant has the right of reply, producing where necessary evidence to refute the accusations, allegations or even lies as this so-called Tan Sri had the nerve to whinge about.

The onus shall always be on the public servant to demonstrate that the accuser has been incorrect, and not for the accuser to defend his or her accusations.

That is the convention of public services in democracies.

The fact that Abdul Rashid has asked for the power to sue, indicates that the public service has not been provided the power to sue anyone, for a damn good reason - that is not within its rights or terms of reference as a public service. More importantly it is to deny such public service the powers to intimidate the public into silence.

As a public service, the burden is on the institute and its officers to demonstrate to the public that it is not incompetent, corrupt or has deviated from official government policies. It must always be transparent, accountable and responsive to public concerns, queries or complaints.

If Abdul Rashid is so thin skin, then I recommend that he should retire, resign or just get out of the Election Commission and indeed, out of our face.

As if that was not enough, the bloke even has the nerve to make a political statement by criticising his accusers who complained of vote-rigging: “These people are traitors (for hurting the image of the country).”

Whether those accusers are traitors or not is not for you, Abdul Rashid a public servant, to open your big mouth to say. You should immediately apologise for your reckless slandering of members of the Malaysian public.

And ominously he spoke of his own organisation’s 'incompetency', by advising that 17,000 people who registered during the last quarter of last year may not be able to vote if investigations could not be completed before the elections. How difficult is it to confirm a mere 17,000 people?