Cooling-off period for elections unnecessary
MIRI: The proposal of having a ‘cooling period’ prior to election day is a waste of time and money, opines Parti Sarawak Bersatu ( PSB) Pujut branch chairman Bruce Chai.
According to him, Malaysia already has a short campaign period, around 10 to 15 days, which he deems as ‘ quite sufficient’.
“In today’s day and age, it’s not about how long you get to campaign; it’s a long- term investment.
“You should not depend on the last two weeks before the polls to convince the people about your policies and directions as an elected representative,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Chai’s was responding to a suggestion by the Electoral Reform Committee ( ERC), which proposed for a ‘ coolingoff ’ period post- campaigning and before polling day.
In a recent statement, ERC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman noted that Malaysia had yet to have this cooling- period and as such, it had been causing the Election Commission ( EC) officers and staff, as well as members of contesting parties’ machinery to suffer from fatigue by the time the election campaign concluded.
“We will study a suitable ‘ cooling- off ’ period for our elections, as implemented in other countries – perhaps, a duration of three days would be suitable, so that everyone would have enough rest before polling day.
“During the ‘ cooling- off ’ period, election campaign posters could also be removed. Hence, the voters would be ‘ fresher’ before casting their votes and would have enough time to make their decisions,” Abdul Rashid was quoted as having said by Bernama recently.
In this regard, Chai viewed the ‘ cooling- off period’ proposal as ‘ not a very important matter’.
“I think the fair running of the campaigns and elections is more important, as by polling day, the voters would have already known their stand and who they will vote for to become their elected representatives,” he argued.
Meanwhile, a local constituent Tim Mustapa said he would strongly support anything ‘ that is transparent and would guarantee a fair election’.
She was referring to the ‘ cooling- off’ proposal, and also another suggestion by the ERC about the settingup of a special commission to carry out redelineation of electoral boundaries in Malaysia.
In the same statement, Abdul Rashid said the ‘ special commission’ proposal was aimed at reducing the workload of the EC; thus enabling it to focus on its key role of conducting the polls.
He also pointed out that such move had been implemented in many developed countries.
“Such move could also avoid the EC from being accused of carrying out delineation of electoral boundaries to enable certain political parties win the elections.
“Canada, for example, has a boundary commission which is responsible for carrying out the redelineation exercise after a certain period, and this measure is seen fairer for the EC and the contesting political parties,” Abdul Rashid was quoted as having said.
In this respect, Tim said while she supported the suggestion, she believed that the members of such special committee must represent ‘ the wide spectrum of our communities, to ensure impartiality and independence’.
“It is of utmost importance that every member of the special committee is accountable and answerable.
They must also represent both the ruling and opposition sides.
“I’m all for it. This is the reform that we have been waiting for, especially because it’s based on the Western electoral system, especially that of the United Kingdom,” added Tim. SEPANG: AirAsia’s artificial intelligence interactive customer service live chat, AirAsia’s Virtual AllStar ( AVA), has received an overwhelming response of an average 50,000 enquiries a day worldwide since its launch in February this year.
AirAsia group head of customer happiness Adam Geneave told a media briefing at RedQ corporate base here yesterday that AirAsia customers are now switching from making a phone call to the airlines’ call centre to having live interactive chats.
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Given the development, Geneave said AirAsia is planning to cease its call centre operations by the fourth quarter of this year and will enhance the features and services provided by AVA from time to time.
At present, AVA communicates in 11 languages, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Malay, English, Tagalog and Hindi.
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Geneave said soon AVA would be able to assist customers in changing their flights and correcting the spelling of their names. — Bernama