The Harrowing Experience of being an EC/SPR Officer for GE13 by Joanne Lim (Notes) on Monday, 6 May 2013 at 21:48

Contrary to public perception, most of the EC officers in schools are
civilians/teachers who applied for the job to be EC officers on election
day. I applied for the job as I wanted to be a part of the election
process and gain a first-hand experience of one of the most exciting
events in my beloved country. And of course, what better way to ensure a clean and fair election than to be a part of it?
To my utter shock, many voters regarded me as a government machinery
who was placed there to prevent them from voting/to destroy/track their
votes. When checking for a man’s saluran using his IC, I was about to
hand him the paper which merely stated the room he should vote in when
he quickly said, “NO NO! Don’t give me anything! You’ll track me!” It
was flabbergasting!
Voters thought we EC officers had the power
to summon everything. Our centre asked MBPJ (in charge of us) for
wheelchairs but were told that they had ran out of wheelchairs. People
scolded us for having no wheelchairs, but really, that was completely,
absolutely not our fault. We asked for wheelchairs numerous times, but
we never got it. To be fair to MBPJ, their staff looked harassed and
exhausted each time we saw them (they ate, slept and worked in their
centre round the clock few weeks prior to elections). I could imagine
the number of phone calls they received that day as polling centres with
problems called them for assistance. In the end we carried chairs from
classrooms so that the senior citizens could sit in line and I drove
senior citizens who walked in the school to the doorstep of their
saluran. And I'm sorry about the sun, we can't help it if you have to
queue in the sun, really we can't. We ourselves suffered in the heat, at
least you could go home after voting.
One voter rudely asked
me why she had to vote in a different saluran from her mother. She
lamented about the inconvenience of it all and demanded that I change
it. What she (and many others) failed to understand was that we were
merely following a pre-decided electoral roll which had already placed
everyone into various salurans according to your IC number. Saluran 1
started with the oldest voters on the list, Saluran 6 had the youngest
voters.
Yes, changing your saluran is possible, we did it for a
number of disabled/injured voters who couldn’t climb up staircases. But
the paperwork involved in that is not easy, with clerks in both
salurans involved having to co-ordinate and fill in forms. So what,
you’ll think. That’s what you are paid for! Well, there are only 5-6 EC
officers in each room, each time an EC officer is held up by such
paperwork the entire voting process is delayed.We (and you) want to
prevent fraud and cheating, hence paperwork is extremely necessary. You
think it’s just a matter of you casting your vote in another classroom?
The number of ballot papers provided for each saluran has already been
fixed, any discrepancies and we’ll be in trouble.
Voters
brought in their own pencils and erasers and whatnot and left them
behind. We had a case of a voter who insisted that she had used a pencil
to mark her vote (although we provided pens that were tied to the
tables to prevent theft) because it was on the table. EC officers went
to check the table and found no trace of a pencil. We asked the polling
agents (PACA) if they had seen a pencil and they said no. For your
information, every saluran has numerous agents from political parties
who are monitoring the entire voting process. Finally the KTM (Ketua
Tempat Mengundi) of that saluran came out and assured the voter that her
vote would be counted, whether in pen or pencil.
The voter
(and her friends/family) then said we would erase her vote and change
it. To which the KTM replied by saying that all the votes would be
counted in front of counting agents (PACA - who are placed there to
monitor the counting process). By this time the voter and her
friends/family are extremely hostile, bad-mannered, rude and sarcastic
towards us. One older man shouts, “Who’s in charge of this now? The
government? The government again lah!” A young man crudely and rudely
tells us not to mess around with them. Trust me, I had to dig deep into
my patience reserve bank to control my response towards them. The KTM
gave the voter a form to make an official complaint but she decided to
walk off.
The internet has done a lot of good, but plenty of
harm too. Voters were told to look out for dots on their ballot papers
which would result in their votes being considered “spoilt”. With the
misconception that each centre was given 10% extra ballot papers, people
kept demanding for new ballot papers the moment they saw a single tiny
dot on their paper. Truth is, centres were given only a FEW extra ballot
papers for voters who sincerely, accidentally messed up their ballot
papers. In my centre, each saluran was only give 6-10 extra ballot
papers although they had 500-600 voters per saluran. Don’t blame us if
you found the EC officer refusing to give an extra ballot paper, do you
want to deny someone else the right to vote on the basis of a single dot
on your ballot paper?
Ok, time to bring in the PACAs (polling
& counting agents) who were present in every saluran, monitoring and
tracking the vote-counting process. Did you agents fight over a dot on
the ballot paper? (Heck, most of you were watching from too far away to
even see the names of candidates properly, what more a dot.) All the
agents looked for were clear votes, whether in pen, pencil, or even
indelible ink (yes, a number of voters thought they had to use the ink
to make their vote). As long as it was a clear vote, it was accepted. If
there were any disputes, agents would argue over it, defending their
own parties. Having observed the counting process myself, I saw no
instance of ballot papers being analysed for dots that would render it
“spoilt”. And I’m sure most of us know friends/family who volunteered as
PACAs, ask them themselves. Were you guys/gals looking out for dots?
I had another voter who stormed up to me and wanted to make an
“official complaint”. He was aghast that the SPR stamp was stamped right
on the centre of the perforated part of his ballot paper, resulting in
the stamp being torn into half. I explained to him that this was done
for the purpose of ensuring that no ballot paper was simply torn out of
the ballot book. He then demanded to know why there was a serial number
on his ballot paper. I explained that it was for the purpose of ensuring
that all ballot papers were accounted for. In the event of a sudden
discrepancy in the number of ballot papers (say, saluran X should only
have 452 voters according to the records of both the polling agents and
also EC officers but we suddenly count 634 ballot papers), the serial
number was important in ensuring that only the “rightful” ballot papers
were counted. He thought for a few seconds over my explanation, nodded
and said, “This sounds like a much more plausible explanation,” and went
off. I understand his worries, I myself have received many emails
telling me how and where and what should be done on my ballot paper. I
think that people must be educated on the entire election process to
prevent this sort of paranoia.
Indelible ink? People came
up to me complaining about the indelible ink being delible (haha). I’m
sorry, I’m only an EC officer who assists you in voting. I did NOT make
nor order nor buy the ink, and I most certainly do not know WHY the
indelible ink is delible. Really, I’m just someone on duty to help you
out! (If you must hear my oh-so-important-EC-Officer
opinion, I find the whole business of indelible ink ludicrous anyhow,
so I really do not care if it can be washed/Cloroxed/soaped/licked off.)
Read me clearly: HELP. I laughed watching the policemen on duty at the
school gate. All they had to do was direct people to the correct rooms
and manage traffic. I heard a policeman say in frustration, “Saya nak
tolong kamu lah! Bukan nak tangkap you! (I just want to help you! Not
arrest you!)” This is because he asked to see the printed slips of the
voters so he could direct them to their rightful salurans, but they
thought that he was preventing them from voting. I talked to many
policemen since they too were regarded with suspicion, making them my
allies. I found out aplenty about the lives of policemen, got to ask
stupid questions like why they weren’t carrying guns, and what they
would do if they encountered trouble on election day. We both lamented
over our rumbling tummies when both the MBPJ and Police Department
failed to send us food until 3pm. I managed to dig out some water
bottles from somewhere in the school and passed it out to the policemen
who were standing under the scorching sun the whole day. Look, I’m
including this just to let you know that we are merely humans beings.
I'm certain the police force was fully mobilised on that day. I talked
to them and found out that they were on duty from 4am-6am THE NEXT DAY.
26 hours of duty, my fellow Malaysians. By night most of them had
bloodshot eyes. They earned my absolute respect and admiration on that
day.
I understand your paranoia, but we’re trying to be nice
here, at least try and see that?? I detest how anger is so blinding that
we take it out on others.
Giving money for your vote. We had
voters who sought EC officers out, demanding that we give them money for
voting. Seriously, I’m not kidding. There was even one voter who told
us that she would vote if someone gave her money. Then she proceeded to
sit around waiting the whole day. Haha, no one gave her any money.
Another man came and demanded that we pay him for voting. I explained
that we were EC officers, that it was an EC booth. He told me that every
other voting centre had places to collect money, all except my centre. I
shrugged and told him to approach the other centres then. He complained
for a while more and left, telling us he would be back. Thankfully, he
never returned.
PACAs. Some of the PACAs whom I met were pretty
sarcastic and hostile towards us. They were sarcastic when they found
out we were being paid for being on duty, told us not to forget that it
was the “rakyat’s money”. They made fun of the free t-shirts and caps
that we were wearing, again reminding us that it was THEIR money. They
persistently told us that they were volunteers and received no money for
doing their jobs. Ok, so I was paid RM235.00 for my duty. I worked from
5am to 9pm. I was drenched in rain, sweat, hatred and anger the entire
day. You think it was worth it? We were given a small, tiny packet of
meehoon for breakfast (seriously, it was about 4 mouthfuls) and one
bottle of drink that was so sweet it made us thirsty. Since the canteen
was closed and we couldn’t go out, many of us had no water to drink
until our ‘lunch’ came at 3pm. Even then, somehow they constantly
miscalculated the number of EC officers in our centre and a few of us
had no food to eat. I had to take water bottles from the teachers’
staffroom as some of the teachers/EC officers had stashes of THEIR OWN
(not government, please) water bottles. The PACAs had KFC and nice
lunches from their own parties, they had the freedom to leave and buy
their own water and food if they so desired, they took turns being on
duty. Why bother comparing? If you envy my job so much, do apply to be
an EC officer for the next GE. It’s open to all as long as you’re above
21 years old.
One PACA even had the audacity to tell me that I
should “also read” non-state-controlled media to “find out the real
happenings” in our country. Hey, just because I wasn’t explicitly
supporting political parties doesn’t mean I’m an ignorant fool, ok?? As
an EC officer my task was to be as neutral as possible, not to join in
campaigning. I pointedly ignored that PACA because… well, because I’ve
no energy nor time to deal with such narrow-minded mindsets.
We
had PACA’s who came without their proper documents and then kicked up a
big fuss and complained to SPR that we weren’t letting them in the
rooms. I understand that some/many people had bad experiences with EC
Officers, but after a whole day of such a hostile environment, who can
blame them? By 10am the hostility I was receiving was taking a toll on
my nerves! Many people pointedly ignored us, and at the end of the day, a
PACA asked my Penyelia Pusat Mengundi (PPM), “You are a teacher? Not an
SPR staff? All the KTMs are teachers too??” I could see confusion
written all over her face, and she became friendly after that. -__-
No, I don’t hate PACAs. Erm… maybe I did, for a few hours. Yes, observe
me by all means, but do it politely, keep all snide comments to
yourself. I never once insulted any PACA (in fact, I introduced some of
the PACA’s to the Penyelia Pusat Mengundi and I assisted them in what
ways I could). I too could have pointedly ignored you for wanting to
observe all that I do, but I did not. That being said, there were also
PACAs who conducted themselves professionally.
And to the
political party that dropped off the old uncle to vote and LEFT HIM
THERE, may you receive your comeuppance someday (to put it politely. I
have a much more vulgar sentence in mind). I never did ask which
political party did it, but I do know that it’s darn irresponsible of
them. I helped this old uncle who REALLY wanted to vote but could only
move about 5cm each step, drove him from his voting room to a waiting
area after he voted. I went outside and asked a nearby political barung
if they had dropped him off, they merely laughed at me and asked, “Which
party does he support?” I was utterly disgusted by their attitude and
walked off. Finding a taxi was a near impossible task, didn’t see any.
In the end the old uncle sat for a good two hours, got all wet from the
storm (strong wind although he was sitting under a tent) till a taxi was
found. I wanted to send him back, I did. But EC officers are not
allowed to leave centres, and obviously so long as no one knew who he
had voted for no one wanted to send him back. My heart really broke for
this old man… I felt so guilty that I had failed to help him… I left him
with other officers and did work elsewhere.
Really, to hell
with humanity, I have to say. In our bid for free and fair elections we
leave out compassion and love for others.
I’m unsure if there
were real EC staff on duty in polling centres, but most schools I know
hired everyday civilians like you and I. If the officers were strict,
they were merely following orders from the higher-ups. The counting
process was done in front of PACAs in each saluran, so cheating there is
impossible. How does cheating happen? Definitely not at such a low-down
level, if not they would not be hiring people like me to assist in the
process. I believe fraud can only happen much higher up, at top-secret
levels.
Ultimately, choosing to be an EC officer was a pretty
abusive experience. Yes, there were people who were nice and smiled at
us, but if there were any problems (real or imaginary) they turned
hostile in a split second. I thought I would do my part in assisting out
with ensuring a clean(er) election, but after everything, I’m not sure
if it was worth it. The pay was definitely not worth it, but I was
supposed to do it for the passion. No one told me I would be so badly
mistreated for this job.
Will I do it again? Funnily enough, I
may consider going through this again. Why? Despite it all, my purpose
still remains: I love my country and I want to contribute towards
ensuring clean and fair elections.
Note: I did not expect this
post to gain such popularity, please bear in mind that the experience I
had speaks for myself alone. I'm not speaking on behalf of PACA, EC,
MBPJ, the police, the government, etc. This is merely my own, individual
experience and I shared it in hope of enlightening the rakyat for
future GEs.