Bersih To Elect New Leadership Soon. Will Ambiga Retire?

Come December Bersih steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah will take over the helm from current co-chairpersons S Ambiga and A Samad Said with no one else nominated for the post.

freemalaysiatoday.com

Although the three-man Election Committee for the Bersih 2.0 polls declined to declare Maria as the new chairperson today, the activist is the sole nominee for the position currently held jointly by prominent lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and national laureate A. Samad Said.

themalaymailonline.com

“As soon as the nominee accepts the nomination, we will deem her position as valid... So we will still let the election process go through and at the end of the election, we will make an announcement,” election committee member Stanley Yong told reporters today.

themalaymailonline.com

Other than Maria, four other national level Bersih steering committee members will be elected on Nov 30 in the Petaling Jaya Community Library while six regional representatives will be elected after the national level election.

freemalaysiatoday.com

Bersih 2.0’s member groups will decide between Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa and Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh for the vice-chair position, while either Masjaliza Hamzah and Nahar Md Nor will be the new treasurer. Five nominees — K. Arumugam, Ng Chak Ngoon, Farhana Halim, Hishamuddin Rais and New Sin Yew — will contend for two posts with portfolios in the steering committee.

themalaymailonline.com

Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and the rest of Bersih 2.0’s 20-member steering committee are soon expected to relinquish their posts to make way for new blood in the leadership of the polls watchdog movement.

themalaysianinsider.com

Ambiga says “I have always believed in the principles of having a limited term in any office... and we speak so much about democracy so we must practise it.

themalaysianinsider.com

“We believe in the importance of rejuvenation and that you must pass the baton on”.

themalaysianinsider.com

But when asked for a specific date for the expiry of the current committee’s term, Ambiga admitted that it was yet to be decided.
She noted that the current committee has been busy handling issues surrounding the just-concluded May 5 polls, and was committed to complete the work it had started.

The coalition for free and fair elections will then organise internal elections among its 84-member organisations to select new representatives to lead the movement, now hailed as an internationally-renowned pressure group for electoral reforms.

Ambiga confirmed with The Malaysian Insider yesterday that “there will be changes in the committee” once a proper mechanism is put in place to elect Bersih 2.0’s new leadership.

themalaysianinsider.com

She noted that it was out of respect for democracy that the coalition’s key members will soon vacate their posts to make way for others.

Ambiga added that it has yet to be confirmed how the coalition would conduct its internal polls to determine the new leadership of Bersih 2.0, but promised it would be a democratic process that would see all member organisations fairly represented.

Ambiga acknowledged that Bersih 2.0 is not a formally-registered society with the Registrar of Societies (RoS) but said there was no need to do so as a coalition of legal bodies.

“We are not a society, we are a coalition. It is legal,” she said.

themalaysianinsider.com

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (better known by its Bahasa Malaysia name “BERSIH”) is a coalition backed by 84 Malaysian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with the objective of campaigning for clean and fair elections in Malaysia.

facebook.com

The Steering Committee members of BERSIH 2.0 are as follows : Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan (Co-Chairperson), Datuk A. Samad Said (Co-Chairperson), Ahmad Shukri Abdul Razab, Andrew Khoo, Arul Prakkash, Arumugam K.

Farouk Musa, Maria Chin Abdullah, Liau Koh Fah, Richard Y W Yeoh, Dr. Subramaniam Pillay, Toh Kin Woon, Wong Chin Huat, Yeoh Yang Poh, Zaid Kamaruddin