By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 23rd June 1990:
Kit Siang to ask for a meeting with Dr. Mahathir to discuss details of the Commonwealth observer mission for next general elections
I will be asking for a meeting with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, to discuss details of the Commonwealth observer mission for the next general elections.
The whole purpose of a Commonwealth observer mission to ensure that the next general elections in Malaysia is a clean, honest, fair and free one would be defeated if the observer mission comprises representatives from Commonwealth countries which operate basically one-party states, do not allow for meaningful parliamentary democracy in their country or whose elections are a scandal of parliamentary democracies.
The Kuala Lumpur CHOGM in October 1989 suggested the sending of Commonwealth observer missions into member countries with the purpose of “strengthening democratic institutions and the key ethic of democracy” in member countries.
Clearly, the democratic ethic of Malaysia’s electoral process cannot be strengthened if observers come from Commonwealth countries who have no respect for the democratic and electoral process themselves.
In my meeting with the Prime Minister, I will suggest that the Government and Opposition should agree on a short list of Commonwealth countries from which to invite observers to constitute the Commonwealth Observer Mission for the next general elections.
Furthermore, I will ask the Prime Minister to accept the principle that all observer missions, whether foreign or local, of the next general elections in Malaysia should be welcomed by both the Government and the Opposition to prove to Malaysians and the world of the integrity of our electoral process.