For the last 50 years since Malaysia’s independence, the power gap between citizens and the government has systematically increased with laws and policies disempowering the people. The civil service is used as pawns and tools for the ruling government to implement its policies with little or no accountability mechanism in place. There is also scant regard to citizens’ participation in its processes.

The citizenship education programme was developed to address the expressed needs and observations that the Malaysian public, in general are not aware and informed about the political relations, structures and their basic rights to participate in governance in the country.

This was evident especially after the political landscape dramatically changed after Malaysia’s 12th General Elections (GE) where for the first time in 50 years, 5 states came under the control of the opposition party coalition (Pakatan Rakyat).

Civil society groups and progressive politicians including their party leadership seize the opportunity to empower the citizens to participate in developing local policies, participating in local governance and determining their development.

The Cit Ed Programme was conceptualized and implemented since 2009. During this phase, 2 rounds of consultation meetings were carried out with 3 carefully identified local municipal/district councils in the Selangor and Penang State in Malaysia.

Four Public Service Announcements (PSA) short videos and one comic booklet published in 4 languages were produced as resource materials to support future Cit Ed workshops and community education sessions.

A social documentary video “After the Tsunami” about the post March 8th elections was also produced as an important tool to facilitate public awareness and education about citizenship awareness, rights and participation in local governance and determining the development of their respective communities.

In the consultation meetings, local councilors, government officials, elected representatives and community and resident leaders were invited to participate in the deliberations, identification of issues and also designing the content for the resource materials and tools.

This programme is especially targeted to the citizentry including local community leaders, resident associations, and other civil society organisations. It is also aimed at engaging with elected representatives, and government at the local, state and even national level such as the Parliament members, State Assemblymen, local councilors and their staff members.

The first phase of the programme had targeted 3 local councils in Selangor, and Penang as a piloting phase. For 2011, we will be expanding to other councils in Penang, Selangor, Perak, Sarawak, Kedah and Kelantan.

SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY,

SAVE OUR VOTE,

SAVE MALAYSIA

A VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR ALL MALAYSIANS TO KNOW ABOUT THE STATE OF THE ELECTROAL PROCESS IN MALAYSIA!!!

Election Offences Act Amendments

During the last day of the Parliament sitting on 19 April 2012, many Bills were rushed through Parliament. One of these bills was the amendments to the 
Election Offences Act 1954. It was a very obvious attempt by the ruling government to control and restrict election monitoring to ensure free, fair and clean elections.

There were 4 amendments, but later resulted in only 2 due to protest 
from the Pakatan Rakyat MPs.

The amendments are as follows:

1.  Section 11(c) Those that publish defamatory, racist and sexist remarks may do so with impunity which had required any print materials to have the names and addresses of its printer and publisher was DELETED IN FULL.

2.  Section 14 1(A) provided for polling and counting agents to arrive at the time decided by the political parties as long as they stayed at the polling stations for at least 2 hours. DELETED IN FULL. (This amendment was later reinstated in full).

3.  Section 26A.(2) & (3) Election agent or candidate disallowed at election booths (barong) was DELETED IN FULL.

4.  Section 26 1(e) Curbing candidates and their staff from checking on identity of voters which allowed for checking of the identity of any person entering a polling centre was DELETED IN FULL. (This amendment was later reinstated in full)

JOM PANTAU, ELECTION MONITORING SECRETARIAT, PUSAT KOMAS
Ms Evelyne Tina Tawan, Project officer
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel/fax: 03-79685415
Hp: 019-367 4151
Website: www.komas.org

Kenyataan Ahkbar  23 hb November 2011

Rang undang-undang perhimpunan aman- “Hak Rakyat untuk berhimpun secara aman dicabul”

Rang undang-undang perhimpunan aman yang dibentangkan oleh Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri oleh Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz hari ini telah memberi pihak polis lebih berkuasa untuk meyekat kebebasan bersuara & berhimpun dibawah Fasal 15.

Ini jelas sekali mencabul Hak Rakyat untuk berhimpun secara aman seperti yang termaktub dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan Malaysia,”Perkara 10: (a) tiap-tiap warganegara berhak kepada kebebasan bercakap dan bersuara.(b) semua warganegara berhak untuk berhimpun secara aman dan tanpa senjata”.

Rang undang-undang ini jelas sekali bertentangan dengan Hak Asasi Manusia dan Perlembagaan Malaysia. Ini menunjukkan usaha Najib untuk mendemokrasikan Malaysia & menghormati Hak Asasi Manusia tidak akan menjadi nyata seperti yang dijanjikan dalam teks ucapan sempena Hari Malaysia 2011-“ Malaysia yang kita impikan bersama dan sedang kita cipta ini adalah Malaysia yang mengamalkan demokrasi berfungsi dan inklusif di mana keamanan dan ketenteraman awam dipelihara selaras dengan roh ketertinggian Perlembagaan, kedaulatan undang-undang, penghormatan kepada hak asasi manusia dan hak-hak individu”.

Rang undang-undang perhimpunan aman ini dilihat lebih mengongkong berbanding Seksyen 27 Akta Polis 1967 yang akan  dimansuhkan.  Fasal 4(1)(c)-Tidak membenarkan kebebasan untuk mengadakan protes jalanan. Ini menunjukkan bahawa hak  asas di negara demokrasi untuk bersuara di tempat awam disekat. Rakyat harus diberi hak untuk berhimpun di tempat awam  tertentu tanpa menganggu ketenteraman awam dan keselamatan.

Fasal 8-memberi kuasa yang meluas kepada polis untuk mengambil apa-apa langkah untuk memastikan perhimpunan yang  dikendalikan dengan teratur. Ini seperti memberi kuasa tersirat kepada polis untuk apa jua tindakan dalam pengendalian  sesuatu perhimpunan.

Insiden-insiden seperti menggunakan gas pemedih mata, pancutan air berkimia dan kekerasan polis dapat dilihat dalam  pengendalian perhimpunan Bersih 2.0 pada 9 Julai yang lalu. Ini telah terbukti dalam siasatan awam ke atas dakwaan pelanggaran hak asasi manusia termasuk penggunaan kekerasan yang melampau sebelum dan semasa perhimpunan Bersih 2.0.

Sejak 17 tahun yang lalu, KOMAS telah bekerjasama dengan komuniti akar umbi yang terdiri daripada latar belakang yang berbeza seperti komuniti Orang Asli,
masyarakat dayak di Sarawak, golongan miskin di bandar dan golongan pekerja di Malaysia. Salah satu objektif utama adalah untuk meningkatkan kesedaran dan menambahkan pengetahuan asas hak asasi manusia sejagat di Malaysia.  Hak kebebasan berhimpun dan bersuara adalah salah satu kunci utama dalam bidang kerja ini.

Rang undang-undang perhimpunan aman tidak sama sekali menghormati hak rakyat untuk berhimpun dan bersuara, tetapi mencabul Hak Rakyat Berhimpun dan Bersuara.  Dengan menafikan hak kita, ia adalah sama seperti hakisan terhadap asas prinsip-prinsip hak asasi manusia sejagat.

Pusat Komas menuntut agar rang undang-undang ini harus ditarik balik. Segala Akta yang digubal tidak harus mengongkong Hak Asasi Manusia. Hak rakyat harus dilindungi dan bukan dicabuli.

PRESS STATEMENT
November 10, 2011
PUSAT KOMAS APPLAUDS MB KHALID’S COMMITMENT  TO STRENGTHENING DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS

We applaud MB Khalid Ibrahim and the Selangor state government for announcing  that a sum of RM5 million will be allocated to strengthening democratic institutions when tabling the budget 2012 at the state assembly meeting yesterday.

This amount is for programmes to educate the public on their democraticrights; voter registration and monitoring electoral rolls.

This ,we believe is a long overdue task which has been neglected by theFederal government that seems to think that all is well with the electoralmechanisms including the Election Commission (SPR).

Education and awareness of the rakyat on their electoral rights and empowering them with the ability to detect fraudulent practices are the key components to ensuring free and fair elections. Such knowledge & information are powerful tools for voters to protect his/her vote. Furthermore one of the basic tenets of democracy is citizenship education.

This form of CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION is considered a norm in many developedand matured Democracies such as Germany, USA and the UK. However such information and education is only picking up in countries such as Malaysia.

For the past 5 years, PUSAT KOMAS together with several other civil societyorganizations with limited financial and human resources have been activelyengaged with “Citizenship Education Programmes”. We have produced many voter education comic booklets, pamphlets, posters and videos and conducted hundreds of voter education workshops and sessions amongst the remote long-house communities in Sarawak; the orang asli communities in the Peninsular and urban poor communities in Selangor and KL.

In the course of our work to promote voter education and participating inelection monitoring, we realized that the “rakyat” especially those inthe rural communities with limited or no internet access, are notat all knowledgeable about their voter rights, let alone being well versedwith election laws and regulations.

This has made them very vulnerable to exploitative forces with hiddenpolitical agenda that will coax or bribe them to give up their vote. Someof them are aware of such violations in the electoral system but do notknow where to go to report their observations. Others are just indifferentbecause they have lost hope in the system and have even stopped castingtheir votes.

Malaysia enjoys a fast track economic growth and also a global reputationof being the popular hub for private education in the Asian region. But itis sad to think that many of its 28 million citizens remain poor inknowledge and information about their basic human rights such as theirright to vote and to protect their vote.

We truly and sincerely hope the Selangor State government’s commitment ofRM 5 mil to educate the rakyat about their democratic rights will beemulated by the other state governments and also the federal government who remains adamant that the Malaysian electoral system and Election Commission is up to standard.

KOMAS wholeheartedly support the State government’s commitment towardscitizenship education as it is definitely a step in the right direction to“strengthen democracy” among the rakyat.

TAN JO HANN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PUSAT KOMAS
HP: 019-2145451

•    Local Workshops / Sessions

A series of local workshops will be organized together with our local partners and key contacts to become equipped with basic understanding on local governance, structure, power relations and also how to gain access, and utilize resources found within local administrations. It will also enhance the capacity of the local leaders to organize themselves to forward their developmental issues, and also gain meaningful participation in local governance issues and participate in local council decisions.

It is hoped that in the long term local leaders and ordinary citizens will become more enlightened about issues of governance and especially their basic human rights in achieving a democratic society in all levels (from local, municipal, state and national).

•    Training of Trainers (TOT)

A series of 2 “training of trainers” (TOT) will be organized in 2011 to develop local trainers who will in turn conduct local workshops on issues of governance and skills on how to engage with local governance. The TOT workshops will involve learning effective community facilitation skills and learning how to make use of the resource materials such as videos, comic booklet, creative charts and other relevant learning teaching aids.

These trainers will not just conduct local sessions in their own communities but are expected to facilitate, support and assist other communities to carry out citizenship education sessions on the local levels.

It is hoped that in the long term, local trainers will be developed in different communities/municipalities thereby increasing the number of local trainers who are skilled to impart citizenship education in their respective areas.

•    Production of Short Video Film on (‘Local Council Elections’)

This video film will feature and advocate the need to bring back the Local Council Elections that was suspended in 1965. The film will raise awareness amongst Malaysian audiences and voters on the benefit of Local Council Elections.

The dissemination of such knowledge to local residents groups and organizations will increase their awareness on issues of democracy and human rights, with the hope that this will motivate them to become more active citizens. Then to establish meaningful collaboration with local authorities, respective elected representatives such as parliament members, local assemblymen and local councilors.