APRIL 18 — India voted last week. There are no winners, yet. Because Indian voters click their ballots today and for another five rounds till May.
This is not about election fraud, this is about 900 million voters in the largest democracy in the world. They are forced to conduct the process in stages.
It mesmerises that nestled between the start and end of the Indian elections is Indonesia’s own democratic odyssey. A hundred ninety-two million Indonesians had the chance to decide the leadership of their country, yesterday.
The two nations hold one-fifth of humanity, and have massive influences in their respective regions and pivotal to geopolitical stability.
Narendra Modi and Joko Widodo seek to stave off the pretenders in the form of Rahul Gandhi and Prabowo Subianto. Those are struggles between juggernauts.
Though from a Malaysian perspective, for lessons we intend to accrue, the competing personalities are not the key attractions.
Rather, it’s the elections themselves, as their processes and evolutions can turn exemplar for our own journey away from political dysfunction.
Logistical nightmare
Consider these.
India’s exercise stretches across 29 states and seven union territories; Punjab’s plain, Rajashtan’s desert, Sikkim and other five states’ alpine weather thanks to possessing the Himalayas, West Bengal’s Sundarbans (mangroves), Andhra Pradesh’s share of the Deccan Plateau and down to Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram. Involves 22 listed languages. Before going into the complexities like polling in Kashmir with the Line of Control for Pakistan and China.
Indonesia has fewer people but is a massive archipelago of 17,000 islands. Granted only 6,000 of them are inhabited, it’s still 6,000 islands. From Sumatra on the west, through Batam, Java, Bali, Lombok, Kalimantan, Flores, Sulawesi and Irian Jaya at the eastern end. Bahasa Indonesia is mandated but such is the nature of island states, 300 regional languages still reign.
India relies on 919,000 polling stations with 3.6 million electronic voting machines, supported by 17 million staff members. Indonesia’s 800,000 polling stations depend on six million staff members.
India only elects 543 members of Lok Sabha (lower house) which means constituencies carry on average a million and a half voters. In some parts of the world, that’s a country — Estonia, Fiji, Luxemburg or Bhutan, for instance.
Indonesia drips ambition. In a day, they’ll facilitate more than 190 million voters to pick from 250,000 candidates for 20,538 legislative seats at five levels of government, which includes president and vice-president. Even the cumbersome — to many Malaysian politicians — district and city council polls (local elections).
Both nations see it as a celebration of democracy, and understand it can fall apart if the irresponsible decide to interrupt. The discovery of voting chits in Malaysia and a sunk ship with ballots in Riau set off alarm bells, but Indonesia’s election managers realised the only means to dispel accusations was transparency and openness to the errors rather than cover them up.
The size and geographical distances are rife for misinformation. Not enough homage can be paid to both nations’ election commissions.
Elections are expensive
One usual refrain among circles of anti-democrats — read the former regime and many in the present government — is that elections should be rarer because they cost money. More so if they are allegedly cosmetic local elections.
The retort is that there is a price to our liberty. The cynical rebuttal is to ask back how much is lost by the country through inefficiency and corruption when the unaccountable, those who inherit power, are in charge for perpetuity?
Absolute rule in the modern age has led to carnage.
The Indian and Indonesian commitments to democracy are RM21 and RM8.3 billion, as in the cost to hold the latest polls. Even in the face of attacks that the money could have fed more of its poor mouths.
Feeding people is not the primary job of a government, while situations may force it in dire situations — such as natural disasters and droughts — for the short run.
Enabling the people to feed themselves is the medium run target of a government. Witnessing its well-fed and therefore educated citizenry engage in civil discourse at all levels of government and society, is the ultimate goal of a government.
Democracy is essential for nations to grow. Elections sustain the democratic spirit and conviction among its people by reminding them that they are dictate terms.
As a sidebar, information technology may positively alter the cost and shape of elections in time to come.
Overseas voters
This is where Indonesia has made greater gains. Over two million Indonesian voters — their Malaysian exodus voted last weekend in Kuala Lumpur — had a say as opposed to India’s 25,000 (as of 2017).
Regardless, both election commissions exhaust all means possible to give their voters abroad a chance to participate.
The rules are spelt out in their websites, forms accessible and processes transparent. India has sophisticated e-postal ballots and Indonesia’s missions are ready to receive as proven by the sheer number of participants.
Malaysia’s Election Commission has fudged this and the new chief Art Harun has a mountain to climb to imbue in the service a sense of higher calling. Scolding, shouting and threats will not shift institutionalised beliefs that elections are about how to win them for the government of the day.
And to adopt the higher belief all Malaysians have a right to participate, even if they work in Melbourne.
Elections around voters
In India, a polling station must be designated within two kilometres of a registered voter’s residence.
Which is why five officials set up a voting booth in Gujarat's Gir Forest to help its single voter, Mahant Bharatdas, cast his machine vote. A presiding officer, two polling officers, a peon and an armed policeman will be on duty in Banej, in case Mr Bharatdas shows up on voting day.
He voted in 2004, 2007 and 2009 but not in 2014. Now, in 2019, elaborate efforts continue because the ascetic lives alone there. But a station must be set up for him because of the two kilometre rule.
The overriding principle? Every Indian has the right to vote. Unlike in Malaysia where interior voters have to trek or navigate up or downstream to voting stations. They have to rush since they are only open for four hours, since it is dangerous to transport the ballot boxes too close to dark.
The voters have to fit into the demands of the election commission rather than the commission finding ways to reasonably facilitate the vote.
Why not set up the polling station in the longhouse? Let the officials travel up and down the river or jungle.
In Indonesia, there is a three-day cooling off period. For all of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, after the final presidential debate on TV (fancy one in three years, Tok Mat?), there was no campaigning. It’s called Hari Tenang (calm days). The lull is to allow voters the peace of mind to think through what they have heard or even seen. To factor previous thoughts and then to arrive at a conclusion without duress.
Malaysia could use this. Currently, there is only an eight-hour lull before voting starts at 8am.
It appears our politicians like our voters irrational, since irrationality is the key strategy employed by all previous winners.
Social progress
In two-thirds of India’s states, women will form the majority. Unfortunately it is not matched by candidature, only eight per cent of them are women.
Indonesia’s voting age is 17, while those above 16 if married can already cast their votes.
In Papua, in respect to tribal culture, the election commission allows tribal leaders to vote on behalf of the tribe. Not sure it is an advantage for democracy but it is about the election commission factoring cultural elements.
Speaking of new culture, India allowed 28,314 voters to register as transgender.
To top it all, Indonesia allows its citizens who are abroad as tourists to vote wherever they are as long as they complete the documentation.
Our progress
Malaysia has to resist the temptation to oppose complexities in our democracy. The inherent need to dumb down things to race does a disservice to the tapestry of values which permeate in our nation.
Big is indeed beautiful, because due to the sheer size of India and Indonesia there are lessons on inclusivity fertilised by firm principles of equal participation.
That to defend all citizens of their right to choose, even if they are far from home, is to celebrate our nationality.
Our election commission has to raise the public discourse on participation. By doing so it constantly reminds its own mechanisations to embrace participation and its role to champion inclusivity.
The results in India and Indonesia will determine their governments, but the very success of their election processes ensures the democratic integrity of those nations. That’s the biggest win.
For our election commission to accept that the mark of their worth is not in who wins, but how they allowed the most number of Malaysians without encumbrance to pick with a clear conscience their leaders.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
