M'sians abroad organise 'Jom Balik Undi' campaign
Overseas Malaysians have launched a campaign to get their countrymen to return home to vote during the 13 th general election to ensure a brighter future for the country.
Overseas Malaysians have launched a campaign to get their countrymen to return home to vote during the 13 th general election to ensure a brighter future for the country.
Called 'Jom Balik Undi' (JBU or Let's go home and vote), the campaigners William de Cruz and Adriene Leong, both based in Australia, in a statement, described the forthcoming general election as critical to the nation's future.
"The possibility for a brand new Malaysia is closer than ever before. Every vote counts."
"We Malaysians abroad have a part to play in influencing the results of the 13th general election.
"We will do this by ensuring the highest possible voter-turnout on Malaysian soil and casting our votes in full force.
"In doing so, we will also minimise the opportunities of electoral fraud and vote tampering on polling day," says the statement that goes on to call all Malaysians abroad to fly home to vote.
Firing up enthusiasm to return
For this purpose, they have put up a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/JomBalikUndiMalaysia for people to like and to send pictures to timeforchangemalaysia@gmail.com.
The JBU campaign will go on, they added, notwithstanding the recent proposal by the Election Commission to allow registered voters living abroad to register as postal voters and vote in the coming election via the postal voting process.
"JBU firstly urges Malaysians abroad who can afford the cost to return home to vote, but we also urge all Malaysian registered voters who cannot return home to apply to become postal voters as soon as possible."
Two organisations , MyOverseasVote and Global Bersih, have called on Malaysians abroad to register themselves as postal voters to minimise the chances of their votes being abused by "phantom voters".
Malaysians overseas can participate by taking or sending photos of them holding a sign with a personal message to the address above.
This is aimed at inspiring more Malaysians to participate and come home.
The campaigners have also sent several pictures of their messsages to Malaysians living abroad in the past 72 hours.
Besides this, JBU will also organise a public forum in Sydney featuring Malaysian political commentators, and public screenings of various documentaries, the statement says.
