With the ascendancy of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to the premiership, things will change - so we are told. Moving in tandem with the wheels of change is Election Commission (EC) chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.

The country's 60-year-old top civil servant who has 30 years of experience in organising elections is so very proud of the EC that he proclaims in an exclusive interview with malaysiakini on Sept 4, 2003:

"In spite of all this (money politics), in terms of electoral management, we are first class, five star. I went to a talk in Cambridge on elections, they were impressed."

But the Five-Star General is worried about the commission's failing image and credibility. He accuses the opposition of "trying to portray the commission as 'untrustworthy' and 'bias' when it (the EC) had made a lot of efforts to promote a clean electoral process and had treated all political parties fairly."

As the EC's boss for the first time, he is bent on leading the way and showing how things can be changed during the country's 11th general elections.

Without wasting time, the first major change that the EC chairman introduced was the campaigning period of the coming polls. He reduced it to only eight days - the shortest in the history of Malaysian elections.

Asked whether the campaigning period was too short, Abdul Rashid said it did not need to be long because the voters already had a sound knowledge of the political parties ( Star , March 6). Ironically, the Star reported on the very same day that most voters do not know their elected reps nor the parties of their MPs! Alas, Abdul Rashid does not seem to have a sound knowledge of the voters.

The following day the Star quotes him as urging political parties not to politicise the number of days allocated for campaigning in the elections. "What has been decided best reflects that democracy is alive and well," he says. "We don't care what the conflicting parties think ... what we care about is what the rakyat say."

Very evidently, it is Abdul Rashid's 'democracy' which is alive and well. He speaks for the people - without the people. Insisting that the number of days was adequate, he says, "I don't want this election to undermine peace." Can there be anything more "political" than the usual refrain employed by the BN each time its own peace is unsettled?

"Please don't tell me I am being unfair to the opposition. If I am unfair, it's to the ruling party (Barisan Nasional) as they will have more constituencies to cover unlike the opposition which will not be contesting in all areas," ( NST , March 5) he says.

But the fact that the opposition will not be contesting in all areas implies that the BN does not have to do any campaigning in these areas and could therefore reserve its strength and resources in more demanding constituencies.

Further, from his press statements and especially by his very own admission in an exclusive interview with malaysiakini , Abdul Rashid is very well aware of the BN's juggernaut of man, machinery, media and money.

Based on these two factors alone, the BN reps vying for the 219 parliamentary and 505 state seats will have no trouble reaching the 10,284,591 eligible voters in eight days. In fact they have already done so in the past months.

The Election Commission and the caretaker government managed very well in the 1959 and 1964 general elections, both of which had as long as a 35-day campaign period. So why the haste when the framers of the constitution had deemed it fit to stipulate that elections be held within (as long as) 60 days after the dissolution of Parliament?

Aliran's latest statement on this brings out succinctly the mockery by the EC chairman, "The EC seem to have forgotten that even during the height of the Communist Emergency, the campaign period was long. Even the Indonesian Confrontation did not curtail the period of campaign.

"In 1955 for example, it was an unbelievable 42 days (in 1959, 1964 and 1969 the campaign period was 35 days. When the security threat then was very real we did not demean democracy or sacrifice the principles of fair play. There was no uncertainty during these interim periods when the caretaker government was in place."

The country was peaceful during the 16-day campaign period in 1974 under Tun Razak as was it in 1978 under Tun Hussein Onn which had a 17-day campaign period. The election campaign periods under Mahathir (1982 to 1995) became considerably shorter - 15 days in 1982, 9 days in 1986, and 10 days for the 1990 and 1995 general elections.

But nothing beats the campaign period of eight days under new premier Abdullah Badawi. So tell us more about the great change that awaits this country Will Abdul Rashid take this country to even greater heights in the 12th general election by fixing nomination and polling on the same day?