GE14 | Incumbent DAP MP for Ipoh Barat M Kulasegaran described the Election Commission's (EC) refusal to grant observer status at the 14th general election to the National Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) as a move that smacks of “arrogance of power”.

“Suhakam is the national body empowered to monitor the state of human rights in Malaysia and as such is qualified to observe the national electoral process,” said the federal legislator.

“To refuse observer status to this, the most equipped and credible body to monitor GE14, smacks of an arrogance of power on the part of the Election Commission that contravenes the first requirement of the EC which is that it is seen to enjoy public confidence,” asserted Kulasegaran, one of several lawyer-legislators in Malaysia's 13th Parliament which was dissolved on April 8 as prelude to GE14.

He added the EC's decision to grant observer status to election management groups from Indonesia, Thailand, Maldives, Krygystan, Timor Leste, Cambodia and Azerbaijan shows that “the EC is inhabiting another world to the one Malaysians are living in.”

“All seven nations whose reps will enjoy EC-granted observer status are not showcases of democracy in the world,” said Kulasegaran.

“No one would say, save of course the EC, that the national polls in the Maldives and Cambodia are cynosures of free and fair elections,” added Kula, who is secretary for the Malaysian chapter of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA).

The PGA is an international group of MPs focused on the effort to get as many nations to become members of the International Criminal Court, a jurisdiction empowered to bring perpetrators of genocide and other crimes against humanity to justice.

Kulasegaran said the EC's rejection of observer status to Suhakam and its preference of monitors from countries with a “shoddy track record in electoral transparency flies in the face of reason.”

He added as an alternative, PGA, because of its credibility, would make for a “far better observer” at GE14.

“The EC must not be so arrogant that it can ignore reason and contend that something that is cloudy when it is actually crystal,” argued Kulasegaran.

“There is a limit to what the public can tolerate of the EC's insulation from reality,” he said.