TTF: The #UndiRosak campaign (see news item below) seems to have garnered quite the reputation for instilling treachery amongst our people. It calls for citizens to spoil votes as a measure of protest against the country’s existing choice of electoral candidates.
Now, the core essence of any democracy is the empowerment of its people to rule over themselves. The system dictates that every citizen must be equal before the law and have equal access to matters of legislature. To have that access, everyone granted the right to vote with the guarantee that every vote has the same weight.
Accordingly, when you request for a ballot paper at the polling centre, you are committing yourself to the democratic process by tacitly acknowledging your intent to vote. If you were to accidentally spoil your vote, you would be construed not to have voted as your ballot would lack a formal expression of preference for any candidate.
However, if you were to wilfully spoil your vote, not only would you have misled the Election Commission by registering as a voter, you would effectively have squandered taxpayer-ringgit by putting to waste a ballot paper. More than that, you’d have committed an act of treachery by conspiring with persons seeking to mislead the Election Commission.
Sadly, there is nothing much anyone can do as the intents of persons casting votes are nearly impossible to ascertain. But what the government can do, if it so wishes, is to take those responsible for the #UndiRosak campaign to task for inciting attitudes detrimental to the democratic process and broader interest of national security.
It saddens me that one or two of the campaign organisers happen to be persons I am acquainted with. I read with shock when Bernama quoted one as saying that the campaign was “to encourage citizens to protest the existing choice of candidates.” This fellow made it sound as if the #UndiRosak movement was for a just cause.
Seriously, there is nothing just or noble about squandering taxpayer-ringgit or misleading the Election Commission (EC). It makes no sense that the campaign is to protest the choice of candidates when existing political parties have yet to even name them. Did this somehow escape the organisers or are they just plain stupid?
(edited at 9.44am, 29/01/2018)
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BUKIT KAYU HITAM: There is no need for anyone to start an #UndiRosak campaign but instead beef up their respective party brands to win over voters, said Kedah Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah.
The campaign is calling on youth voters to spoil their votes when casting ballots in the 14th General Election to voice their dissatisfaction with both the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and opposition parties, claiming that both sides were out of tune on their aspirations.
Ahmad Bashah, who is also Kedah Mentri Besar and state Umno chief, said such a campaign was counterproductive.
“Who will lose if votes are spoilt? We (BN) want zero #UndiRosak (spoilt votes),” he told reporters here today.
He was commenting on the campaign which is currently trending on social media ahead of GE14, which must be called by August this year.
In Johor Baru, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohammad said the campaign was not initiated by the BN as claimed by some quarters.
“I think it is the work of activists who are fed up of the opposition and also still not satisfied with the government,” he told reporters.
In Kangar, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said the opposition party was strongly against the campaign because it did Islam and the country a disservice.
“Choosing leaders is a big responsibility and one that must be discharged by all Musims,” he told reporters at the Perlis PAS complex.
Source: The Malay Mail Online
