Overseas M'sians cast postal votes, marking polls history

Malaysians the world over made electoral history yesterday as a huge swathe took part for the first time ever as overseas voters in the 13th general election, coinciding with the first anniversary of Bersih 3.0.

Spanning several timezones and cities, thousands of Malaysians cast their ballots as postal voters. About 1,700 in Australia were among the first to do so as voting stations coped with an unexpectedly high voter turnout.

According to reports collected by Global Bersih throughout the day, Melbourne led the rally with about 1,000 voters, while Canberra had 385 and Perth saw 315.

There were several hundred across European cities such as London, Paris, Berne and even Prague, while in the three polling centres set up in Malaysian missions in the US, Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles, similar numbers turned up to cast their ballots, with some having travelled hours in cars and by air from other parts of that country. Reports of good turnouts have also been received from Malaysians in Dubai, Wellington, Shanghai and Tokyo.

In Kuala Lumpur on the same day, Bersih co-chair Ambiga Sreenevasan kept jubilation in check as she recognised the wonderful coincidence of electoral history with the Bersih anniversary.

“What a journey it’s been,” she told the crowd that had gathered for the launch of Bersih: The Voices of Rhyme & Reason, a book commemorating April 28, 2012.

The journey was forced upon Malaysians because, for years, the Election Commission (EC) had discriminated against many Malaysians abroad, only allowing the postal vote to military personnel, public servants and students. Most recently the EC stood for months in contempt of Parliament, which had directed it to act with haste to open up the postal vote.

First steps to overseas voting

The first step to expand the postal vote was actually taken on another April 28, three years ago. That day, Leong See See, a Malaysian in London, emailed KL lawyer Edmond Bon, a prominent member of the Malaysian Bar, to explore a pro bono opinion on the issue.

Bon (right) replied to say the Election Commission’s behaviour was unconstitutional and discriminatory.

A few months later, Leong and another Malaysian in London, Yolanda Augustin, met with lawyer Andrew Yong over a UK dinner that followed an anti-ISA gathering, and the three decided to take the matter further with the blog, MyOverseasVote (MOV).

MOV began the Internet campaign to force the EC to widen postal voter categories and include all Malaysian registered voters living overseas.

Armed with Bon’s legal opinion, they began charting their full course and strategy, which included scouting for Malaysians who were willing to apply to the EC to become postal voters, knowing they would be rejected.

Eventually, six Malaysians in London - Teo Hoon Seong, Vinesh Vijayan, Paramjeet Singh, Yolanda Augustin (right), Sim Tze Wei and Leong - did just that, and when the EC rejected their applications, they sued the commission.

Throughout the case, Bon continued to work pro bono for the Malaysians, who came to be known as the MOV6.

On Jan 6, 2012, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Justice Rohana Yusof threw out their case in a decision that was decried by lawyers who argued that she had missed the point of their legal challenge. On Oct 24, as the litigants were considering their appeal, the commission’s senior federal counsel (SFC) verbally notified them that the EC would change the regulations.

And so, exactly three years since that fateful email, polling booths from Wellington and Melbourne, Shanghai and Tokyo and across Europe to the US opened last Sunday to thousands of previously disenfranchised Malaysians.

Global Bersih (GB) can also take some credit for the postal vote story, having built a bloc of activists worldwide, many of whom only know one another over emails and voices on Skype, but who have together encouraged as many Malaysians as possible to register as postal voters.

That motley crew came into existence on July 9, 2011 in solidarity with Bersih 2.0.

‘Eerily Orwellian’

David Teoh, a primary founder, says: “In the weeks leading up to ‘709' (the Bersih 2.0 rally), it seemed that a cloud of gloom had descended on Malaysia - random people were being hauled up for wearing yellow, there was the arbitrary arrest of the Emergency Ordinance six (EO6) and the heavy police presence blocking roads leading to Kuala Lumpur.

“It all seemed eerily Orwellian, from the perspective of a young Malaysian living in Melbourne. I had to ask myself, what would be my almost certain future be if I chose to return to Malaysia?

“That was the primary motivation behind Bersih 2.0 in Melbourne. Like wildfire, within two2 days, as a result of crowdsourcing on Facebook, organisers committed to have simultaneous Bersih 2.0 rallies in six cities in Australia.

“The number of committed attendees increased by the day as news from Kuala Lumpur grew bleaker.

“The story broke on The Malaysian Insider, Free Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini, and soon after, there were groups organising themselves in other parts of the world.

“Within days, the number of participating cities had ballooned to 38.”

A sleeping giant had awakened.

Bersih 3.0 proved to be an even bigger event. From 38 cities in 17 countries, the GB network grew Bersih 3.0 to 85 cities in 38 countries.

The predominant conversation after just two years of campaigning via GB and MOV is about inclusivity - Malaysia is not limited to its geographic boundaries, and is the collective will of its citizenry and every Malaysian has a say in our country's future.

For the first time last Sunday, 6,298 registered postal voters were due to lodge their ballots, joining 2,900 civil servants and students previously registered as absentee voters.

In Melbourne, they turned up as early as 8am to cast their votes at the consulate on St Kilda Road. They had flown in from Brisbane, Hobart and Adelaide, which would have cost more than RM1,000 in airfares. Hundreds of voters drove from Sydney before dawn to cast their votes at the High Commission in Canberra.

JomBalikUndi (JBU), the ‘fly home to vote’ social media campaign that started after Bersih 3.0, has also received overwhelming response, each week reaching close to 400,000 people on Facebook, 12,000 of whom share JBU posts.

Nevertheless, all is not as good as it was cranked up to be. Turnout has been low in some cities, and there are a high number of uncollected ballots.

Yong and other GB movers who have descended on KL for GE13 are watching the numbers as they come in from Shanghai to Dubai. They are hopeful the surprisingly high number of uncollected ballots comes down to distrust of the 11th hour postal vote the EC bestowed on Malaysia.

Perhaps, they quietly hope, Malaysians are choosing to collect the ballots later and take responsibility for sending them back to individual constituencies, via courier, returnees, family in Malaysia, or some combination thereof.

As Yong says: “Malaysians around the world have stood up to be counted. Those who have travelled and queued for hours, and those who will be flying and driving back to Malaysia to vote, have demonstrated that they still belong to Malaysia and care for her future.”

The writers have returned to Malaysia from overseas to vote in GE13.