Let’s keep it clean, people

THE 14-day campaign for the 15th General Election (GE15) officially started today with 945 hopeful candidates contesting for 222 parliamentary seats nationwide.

This will be one of the hottest general elections since we gained independence in 1957, with three large coalitions, Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan, all trying to wrest enough power to get back into governing the country for the next five years.

Fierce battles are anticipated, with most constituencies seeing multi-cornered ones.

In fact, fighting is expected to be so intense that several NGOs and many concerned citizens have been worrying about just how dirty things will get.

No less than the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, has weighed in on the matter, issuing a statement that called for candidates and party supporters to act civilly and respectfully throughout the campaign period.

“Refrain from mudslinging, slandering, provoking and insulting one another while campaigning,” he said, adding that such acts could create disorder.

The King also told candidates to adhere to all rules stipulated by the authorities in this period, including the Election Commission (EC) and the police.

Playing the racial and religious cards to win votes has become so prevalent in recent years that people might not even realise that it is against the law to do so.

Under Section 4A of the Election Offences Act 1956, acts or statements used “with a view or with a tendency to promote feelings of ill-will, discontent or hostility between persons of the same race or different races or of the same class or different classes of the population of Malaysia in order to induce any elector or voter to vote or refrain from voting at an election or to procure or endeavour to procure the election of any person”.

The law has been in force since Jan 16, 2003, but you wouldn’t think so judging by the divisive and sometimes downright hateful rhetoric that emerges on the campaign trail.

But it’s 2022; surely we’ve grown up as a democracy at least a little by now? Enough to expect election candidates and party supporters to act civilly and respectfully while campaigning?

Political parties need to ensure there are no personal attacks made or sensitive issues about race and religion brought up simply to win votes – it would be shooting themselves in the foot.

The EC too must play its part by issuing strict guidelines prohibiting discriminatory stereotyping and incitement to hate based on race and religion.

And the police need to make sure the rules are followed. As one reader pointed out in a letter about the Election Offences Act, “Let the police enforce this law without fear or favour. Parliament has legislated it, the police must enforce it” (“Promoting hostility is an offence”, The Star, Nov 4; online at bit.ly/star_offence).

We the rakyat must do our part too. Apart from reporting instances when the rules are broken, we too have to avoid inflammatory rhetoric on social media.

Malaysia’s social media is infamous for how quickly comments degenerate into personal attacks and demonisation of races and religions.

We should know this by now: We are a multiracial, multicultural and multireligious country. We’ve managed to live in relative peace for decades. Do not allow an election, that most important cornerstone of democracy, to reduce us to attacking one another and tearing that peace apart.

And let’s not allow fake news spread by trolls to get us worked up either – as has been said over and over, do not share without thinking and verifying.

It’s an election, we are all of us – candidates and citizens – making our voices heard, so let’s make sure our words remain civil and are never hurtful or offensive to anyone.