New movement fights to restore ‘third vote’, insists won't cause racial unrest

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — Bertindak, a newly-formed NGO fighting for the restoration of the “third vote”, came out today to disagree with PAS’ claim that holding local council polls could result in a repeat of the violent May 1969 racial riots.

The NGO, which counts several PAS politicians among its members, said that the claim made by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang is untrue and not likely to be possible.

“How is it possible that this will give rise to issues of race?” Ishak Surin, the president of Bertindak and the chairman of Batu PAS division said.

“If the third vote causes racial unrest, how come state elections have no unrest?” he added.

The disagreement over the third vote is the latest flashpoint to threaten the relationship between PAS and DAP, whose leaders have already been trading barbs over the Islamist party’s plan to enforce hudud Islamic penal law in Kelantan.

DAP had proposed that its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) allies PKR and PAS adopt Penang’s approach and enact state laws in Selangor and Kelantan to try to return the third vote to Malaysians.

PAS, however, accused DAP of acting unilaterally in seeking to restore local council elections, in an apparent retaliation to the latter’s vehement attacks over the Islamist party’s hudud ambition.

Ishak said the “third vote” respects the basis of a functioning democracy and as long as the public want it restored, it would not be unconstitutional.

"In the Constitution, the public has the right to speak out, to assemble, to have an opinion," he said.

"So I think if we demand to be given to the right to determine our representatives (in the local councils), it will not go against the Constitution," he added.

He said this in response to the Federal Court's decision last August that the Local Government Act, which the PR Penang government had sought to challenge for preventing local government elections, was constitutional.

Bertindak committee member Ngeow Chow Ying added that electing local councillors will ensure Kuala Lumpur's funds are properly spent, especially for major projects like the construction of the MRT line.

Local council elections were suspended in 1965 because of the Indonesian Confrontation and then-prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman promised the Dewan Rakyat that local elections would be restored once the Confrontation was over. They were never brought back.