A Fact To Remember in Bagan Pinang - EHMs at Work

Economic hitmen are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex and murder. They play a game as old as Empire but one that has taken on terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

- John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitmen

Once upon a time back in 2004, one of the contests during the 11th general election was the parliamentary seat of Putrajaya. The two contestants for that seat were Tengku Adnan (Conan) Mansor and the PAS man - - . Of course, the winner was Conan but the other man knew that the win was rigged - a few days before polling, some of the voters, being civil servants and residing in Putrajaya came up and told the PAS man that they had to vote for Barisan Nasional or risked being sacked. A few days prior to polling, Tengku Adnan visited government offices there and told each civil servant that they must vote for Barisan Nasional or face the sack. In the meaning of the saying, Tengku Adnan wanted a crushing majority and make the other opponent lose the deposit. (this was a source from Malaysia Today, but access to the site was so difficult for me and it got DDOS to get the exact quote.)

Of course the other person complained this to the Election Commission, but the complaint was shot down.

There was a way to know which party does the civil servant votes, which is similar to the Borang 2 that the army people vote like in those areas that are postal-vote dependency like Setiawangsa. And that was one way to rigged the election to BN's favor.

If that is not enough why Zulhasnan Rafique still remains as the F.T minister although 10 of 11 parts of Kuala Lumpur were lost to the opposition was simply because that Setiawangsa was won due to army postal votes there.

Maybe that is not strong enough to be case of point, but the one significant situation that illustrates vote rigging was the Rembau parliamentary seat where the PKR candidate Chegubard was leading but only for Khairy to win after a disputed recount. Many have alleged that it was because of the last minute addition of ballot boxes from nowhere from other places. The problem is that there was a problem of deciding which seat to win, either Lembah Pantai or Rembau. Given that Khairy is more important than Sharizat, he has to win at all costs. So she had to be the sacrificial lamb, and losing to Nurul Izzah.

Yes, the Bagan Pinang by-election has brought a lot of worries to the Pakatan because 30 percent of the votes are postal votes come from the Army. And the army personnel has to sign a Borang 2, which of course reveals to other parties who you have voted. A mark on the opposition means to some as betraying the government that is the Barisan Nasional party and off you are from the army (read: sack).

Vote rigging is something that some governments would do because some of the policies that they implemented are enjoyed by themselves and in long run, they stand to win out of it. So that is why they would do whatever it takes to remain in power. Their greatest fear is that should they lose the entire war, all that what they get from what they implement could be wiped out or taken off by the next government in waiting.

Since 1/3 of votes comes from Army, and the army is under the defence minister Zahid Hamidi, I still wonder and ponder if the Zahid will do the same thing as Ku'Nan did 5 years ago. Anyhow, some people are aware of Zahid shaking hands with Netahanyu, whereas people scream of hate Israel for attacking the Palestinians.

Do you feel that something is really wrong with this country?

Vote rigging and so forth is part of making Malaysia owe millions of dollars and bankrupting the country in long process. So be careful of choosing whoever the candidates are in the by-election.