ADUN SPEAKS | The Malaysian Election Commission (EC) has announced that it would invite international election observers for the coming general election, [citing the past example of GE13 when they engaged those] from Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar. This is in response to Pakatan Harapan's call for the government to invite international election observers for the coming 14th general election (GE14).

If the election commission has nothing to hide, and is sincere in strengthening elections and democracy, it should invite representatives from nations that rank above Malaysia in the democracy index ranking.

The democracy index ranking by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) measures the state of democracy in 167 countries, of which 166 are sovereign states and 165 are UN member states.

However, every nation that the EC invited in GE13 ranks below Malaysia. Furthermore, other than Indonesia, who shares the same status of 'flawed democracy' with us, Thailand is classified as a 'hybrid regime', and worse still, Myanmar and Cambodia are categorised as 'authoritarian' regimes.

Indonesia and Thailand are at best level with Malaysia in terms of the credibility of their election systems. Myanmar and Cambodia will bring no added value to Malaysia's election system, if their own systems are anything to go by.

Shunning real scrutiny

Would they invite those from the top 19 ranking nations that are classed as 'full democracies' to observe our elections? What is there to hide, from peers who are more democratic? Why can we not learn from those who rank better than us?

Elections observation by international bodies should be the rule, not the exception. It certainly is, for most nations who are either full-fledged democracies, or are striving towards further democratisation.

It is unclear if the Malaysian EC is interested in being observed by those who know better. Or if it has intention to strive for better standards.

The type of international observation that is being referred to here, is not the type that has been allowed by the ruling regime. In the last general election, observers were only permitted within a very limited area in and around Kuala Lumpur, and only allowed to observe within a very short time window of a mere few days before and during polling day itself.

The ruling regime was also extremely selective in whom they allowed to be here to observe. Credible and experienced bodies, many with expert interest in the monitoring and observing of elections, were denied; some were even turned away and sent back to their own country.

Harapan Youth wants the government and EC to issue an unrestricted, open invitation to all democratic nations, as well as reputable international election observation and monitoring bodies, to witness these crucial elections.

Show the world that the BN government and the EC have nothing to hide. Until then, we will know that the reality is exactly the opposite: they have everything to hide.

HOWARD LEE is Pasir Pinji assemblyperson, as well as Harapan Youth chief secretary and DAP Youth international secretary.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.