Assalamu alaikum.

So what are you saying? That we should all go to sleep and not embark on any sort of monitoring efforts? "Hee!" back to you. For indeed it is funny  -  it would seem that you would love for that to happen very much.

> Usaha tuan/puan memang baik tetapi tidak memadai. Usaha untuk memantau
> amalan pilihan raya ke-10 ini sebenarnya tidak praktikal. Pertama,
> tenaga manusia terlatih dan wang terlalu banyak diperlukan. Ertinya,
> tidak semua tempat akan ada pemantauan. Kedua, jika tidak ditemui
> sebarang penyelewengan atau salah laku, usaha tuan/puan itu secara
> tidak langsung mengesahkan lagi bahawa "pilihan raya itu bersih." In
> spite of monitoring the violation of election regulations, normally by
> ruling parties, you are endorsing them! Hee... thats funny!

Let me ask you this. Have you any experience in doing any sort of monitoring work? If you don't, what makes you such an expert? If you do, what gives you the right to be so condescending? A person with any kind of experience in election monitoring would know that the very act of monitoring, no matter how little it is done, can have a positive effect on the process of elections. And for people who fight desperate battles against oppression and tyranny because they believe in "fighting the good fight", making a difference, no matter how little, makes all the fighting worth it.

Yes, at this point in time, Pemantau is short of manpower and funds, but to suggest that the Pemantau should just drop all that it is doing would be to give in to oppression and tyranny without a single fight. If this is what you are suggesting, then the "joke" (or whatever it is that you find so funny) is on you.

Even if the Pemantau ends up being ineffectual, at worst it would have no bearing on the elections whatsoever. The Pemantau would not voluntarily lend its credibility to the elections. If you think it would, then the "joke", again, is on you. What? You, of all people, are afraid of political party
propaganda? Since when has that really stopped anyone from doing what needs to be done or from speaking the truth?

>Ketiga, dan
> paling penting, penyelewengan dalam pilihan raya itu bukannya berlaku
> ketika kempen sahaja atau pada hari mengundi sahaja. Penyelewengan itu
> sudah EMBEDDED sejak pilihan raya yang lalu lagi; misalnya sempadan
> kawasan pilihan raya, pengundi hantu, senarai pemilih, kakitangan SPR
> dan SPR itu sendiri!

Perhaps I am wrong, but it would seem that from the above paragraph, you have no
inkling of an idea of what  election monitoring is all about or at least what it is that the Pemantau is going to undertake. Do you honestly believe that all the various NGOs involved in the Pemantau are being represented and advised by a bunch of five year olds? We are very well aware of the issues
that you have brought up above and more.

We would like to do everything that needs to be done in relation to pre-election, election day and post election monitoring. It is, of course, unfortunate that under the circumstances we can only do some things in relation to them but we will do them nonetheless. After all, every long journey begins with the first step, and unlike you, we are willing to take those first few steps involved in election monitoring work.

> [Snipped]

You may personally be convinced that the coming general election results would be unreliable, but while you resort to using the Filippines as an example, you forget that in the Filippines, NAMFREL was established to do monitoring work specifically to address the need to independently evaluate
the election results in the Filippines (NAMFREL declared the first round of elections null and void). And in Indonesia, while it was mainly the students' Reformasi drive that "drove" Suhartoe out of power, in the recent elections, Indonesia had local as well as foreign poll watchers.

The point is this: we all have to do what needs to be done in a democracy and just because you believe that there are other more effective ways of seeing change being brought about in Malaysia it does not mean that Pemantau has no role to play whatsoever.

How long do you think it took for NAMFREL to be set up? One week? Two weeks? One month? It did not appear overnight or over a short period of time, if that is what you think. Likewise the Pemantau will need time to become fully established, if not longer than the time taken to establish NAMFREL, but establish it we must.

Sincerely,

Ahmad Faiz bin Abdul Rahman
Assistant Director
International Movement for a Just World
(an endorser NGO of PEMANTAU)