THE CICAK.com

Malaysian embassies clueless about voter registration

Art by CHUAN ZUI

By TAN CHIA HUEI

I’m guilty of procrastinating. Like the time I had to renew my MyKad, along with hundreds of other Malaysians lining the JPJ block twice over. And now I join the ranks of 4.9 million Malaysians who have not registered to vote.

But when you turn 21 and you’re only home for a month each year, getting yourself on the electoral roll is not a priority.

Who reminds young Malaysians to register to vote?

Political awareness among Malaysian youth is generally low. Add to that the complexities of registration and postal voting for those overseas, and the percentage of those who do not vote increases.

There is also relatively little effort to increase awareness among new eligible voters. Compare this to the UK, where those who turn 18 (the legal age to vote there) are sent a form or reminder to register, or to Singapore, where everyone is automatically registered when they turn 21.

In our case, we are only reminded to register when politicians point out the number of unregistered voters.

Guilty of not registering

I am currently studying in Switzerland and did not register to vote when I was recently back home. And I have Malaysian friends in the same boat.

With high hopes, we each e-mailed the election commission and Malaysian embassies near us. But no one received a response, which is no surprise at all.

We will just have to wait till we get home later this year.

And if the general election is held at the end of the year, we will be unable to cast our votes. It takes up to three months upon registration for our names to appear on the electoral roll.

Absentee voting unclear

The Malaysian Embassy in Switzerland has “not had instructions from Kuala Lumpur” on how to deal with absentee votes. What’s up with that?

Shouldn’t Malaysians living abroad be allowed to send in all relevant documentation and prepare for the election, before the big rush begins? And how convenient will it be to vote from abroad? And will our postal votes be counted fairly?

But alas, any information like that would imply that the election will be held very soon.

Plea to Malaysians in the country

4.9 million Malaysians living in the country don’t realise the importance of their votes. They say that their ballots are insignificant with the number of phantom voters in the country. Many Malaysians also use the excuse of not knowing which party to vote for and they don’t make an effort to learn more.

So whose fault is it when come election time, millions of eligible voters are not on the “selected” electoral roll? Malaysian citizens, for not taking the time to register to vote? Or the election commission, for taking a ridiculously long time to process the electoral roll and not providing sufficient information to new voters? Who should we blame?

Ourselves. We need to take it upon ourselves to spread awareness about voter registration. We need to exercise our right to vote.

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TAN CHIA HUEI is a contributing writer for theCICAK.

Chia Huei is a biomedical engineering graduate student at ETH Zurich.

CHUAN ZUI is a graphic artist for theCICAK.

Zui is almost an Otaku but hates big-chested anime characters. He is a twisted weirdo because of his islander kiasuness, a result of living his early childhood in Singapore. Zui is an artist of few words. Visit his site.