KUCHING: Voters must be sober and able to think rationally when deciding who they want to vote for in elections.
They will never be able to do that when they vote under the influence of alcohol or lured by the food and the treatment they received.
The sobering warning comes from the Dayak National Congress and Dayak Think Tank Association, Sarawak.
“Right from nomination day, Nov 5, what we have been seeing and witnessing are scenes of people drunk, vomiting and performing lurid actions in the longhouses,” said Paul Raja, President of the Dayak National Congress and Wellie Henry Majang, founder/adviser of the
DTTAS in a joint statement.
“Apart from that, there are photos and videos feeding the social media of trucks and boats loaded with alcoholic drinks and food as part and parcel of campaign strategies.
“These are meant for rural voters who have been so used to such treats, so much so that some villagers even demand for it from the campaigners,” they said.
“What is going on in our electoral process shows that majority of the voters, especially rural voters, don’t really understand the meaning of the process.”
They added that an election is a democratic process where the people get to choose the best qualified candidates to lead the nation towards progress and development.
“We do not deny the fact that drinking is part and parcel of the Dayak community. But it is done during auspicious occasions. By intoxicating the rural voters during elections is making a mockery of the process as well as the native drinking culture,” they said.
“There are even worst practices when villages supporting their political opponents are bombarded with crates and crates of beer and food on the eve of voting day. When they are too drunk they are unable to wake up early the next day to vote!
“Bribing the voters with food and drinks excessively to the point of debauchery is inculcating in voters the culture of selling their votes to highest bidder,” they added.
They said these politicians may win but they would have destroyed their voters.
“There is even a video of a little girl saying “ada duit ada undi”. This is so sad because they are being taught to sell their votes even at a very young age!
“Is this the type of political culture that we want to pass down to the next generation? This short-term gain by those desperate to win is a long-term loss for the nation. This is simply deplorable,” they said.
“We wonder whether these desperate politicians even care to know that they are committing the offence of ‘Treating’ under section 8 and ‘Bribery’ under section 10 of the Election Offences Act 1954.
“When people vote under the influence of corruption and bribery, they are effectively voting corrupt leaders into power. When these corrupt leaders are put into power, it elevates the corrupt culture right into parliament,” they said.
They added that bringing in the culture of corruption into parliament will lead to another level of corruption.
“From among these corrupt elected representatives, some will be appointed to be executives.
“These corrupt executives will in turn corrupt the civil service. This is a fact which everyone involved will deny but it’s public knowledge. The whole system is corrupt. We have seen enough of it,” they said.
In this context they said it is every politician’s duty to educate the voters instead of corrupting them.
They added that there must be an end to this culture of election corruption.
“If these politicians and political parties do not put a stop to this, then the voters must stop them by not voting for them anymore.
“We wish only the best gets elected,” they said.
