The Election Commission finally announced that the nomination day for the 11th general election would be March 13 and voting on March 21. This makes it the shortest election campaign period in Malaysian history. At the going rate, it looks like by the next two elections the campaign period would be just 24 hours.

The EC chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman was quoted in the news as saying that the short period should not pose any problem as all the political parties already knew when this election was going to be held, and that they had been campaigning since a long time. Shockingly enough the EC admitted having based their decision on its preparedness, on the police resources and his importance of having the government back functioning again. Is that what a democracy is all about or is it a fitting 'mockerycracy'.

Abdul Rashid even quoted the thousands of ceramahs the opposition has held over the years. Therefore "the eight days period is sufficient to wrap up the campaign". What an absurd opinion.

With all the government resources at their disposal, notably the controlled print and electronic media, which will be kept in full-swing campaigning for BN, the utterly short period will only favour the ruling parties.

Wanita MCA was also quick to support the EC, saying political parties should be ever ready, as if Barisan Nasional was ever ready. If so, why eight days? Why not the voting be done on the day after nomination day? It would have been different if the government had announced the nomination and polling day three months in advance. In which case, a short campaigning to wrap things will make sense.

Three senior leaders of Keadilan - Mohd Azmin, Ezam Mohd Nor and Irene Fernandez - were prematurely disqualified by the EC citing the BN-orchestrated convictions despite the fact that all of them have yet to exhaust the final process of law as guaranteed by the constitution. How convenient.

Recently, the EC chairman was quoted as declaring that those who have yet to exhaust their rights of appeal could contest the elections. That's proven because Azmin was not disqualified from the Selangor state assembly after the conviction. Then why is he disqualified now? Why this EC about turn?

Smell something more.

Ex PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad has finally admitted that Malaysian people generally hated him. He also admitted that the opposition ran out of issues to pin on BN so soon after his retirement. The stock market rose, the economy became much stronger, foreign investment comes pouring, the relationship with America, China, Japan and Asean countries improved tremendously. His friends get arrested. Contracts he awarded get overturned. In other words, he is getting written off.

Under his leadership, Umno went through the worst of its times. It broke up several times. In 1999 elections, among the BN component members, Umno fared the worst, performing miserably with only about 60 percent win out of the seats contested compared to the all other members. MIC did 100 percent while MCA and Gerakan did around 80 percent.

Consequently, in order to appease the many coalition partners and to keep them towing the line, the cabinet has to be enlarged. It had to be expanded further to match Umno in the leading role making the Malaysian cabinet being the biggest cabinet per capita in the world. All these at the immense cost of public money.

This time around BN must explain to the people how economical and efficient they were under Mahathir. Why did it spend billions for projects that required only millions? Why did it spend billions of public savings to bail out failed cronies? It must explain to the people why it made a heavy commitment to the government favouring contractors in the infrastructure projects, notably the toll roads, forcing a huge burden on the people.

Mahathir has offered to campaign for BN. Will the masses still listen to him? Barisan should better think twice before sending Mahathir to draw grassroots votes. It could well be counter-productive. When he was around, he made the people feel as if he was indispensable. Today, the people are seeing the difference, the truth is swiftly unfolding.

The Barisan uses the media and government people and machinery. They also have a media advisor paid by the people. The national TV and TV3 openly campaign for the government. And even after the parliament and state assemblies are dissolved, Barisan leaders still go around awarding projects and giving out land titles as by MCA state exco member Ong Ka Chuan in Ipoh. It that ethical? Is it alright with the EC because Barisan Nasional is their political masters?

Well, it is time for the real masters, the people, to set things straight. Will Malaysia be better off with BN being given a simple majority or a two-thirds majority? Let Malaysian wisdom decide on March 21.