Indelible ink... does it really work?
Just few days ago (16 May), Karnataka (India) had their state elections and all who went to vote had their fingers marked with the Indian indelible black ink. Yes, it is supposedly the same black ink our Malaysian Election Committee wanted to import for our recent March 8th elections - scrapping the plan at the 11th hour.
I went to a coffee shop for a drink that day and talked to the smiling 'boss' who showed me his prove of having faithfully done his duty like every good occupant of Karnataka and voted that morning.
The way to put the ink, he mentioned, was to strike a line on the dorsal surface of the (distal phalanx of the) finger, which overlapped the skin and the nail bed... the most safe-prove way of doing it as the ink would move with the nail as it grows and thus splits from the mark remaining on the skin which would stay on for at least a month. (That was what he said. hmm... I still don't get the logic on why it is safe-proof)
But paradoxically... he also said that about 10 years ago he voted at least 4 times in a single election (but now he was lazy). 4 times! How is it possible? I mean there is that indelible ink and all that security etc... I mean if there is one person who can vote 4 times even with that kind of security, just imagine how many phantom voters are out there rigging the system. And let me stress again... they used our favourite and much talk about indelible ink!
Obviously I was dreadfully curious on how that 'boss' did it. If it could happen in India, it definitely can happen in Malaysia as well and all the 'clean and fair' elections effort will just be wasted, being flushed down into the toilet bowl.
... the secret was the use of a certain liquid type chemical substance - from what I heard it sounded like 'phenicol' or something similar to it - which, after dipping your finger into it, dries up on the skin (and nail bed) leaving no detectable trace of a chemical coating.
Then, after the officer had applied the ink, you've voted and are supposed to be done for that day, you get excited with election fever and... rubbing off the chemical coating, you're off to vote again.
Elections must be fair and clean, and governments must be chosen through the right means of which, represents the true voice of the nation and not based on vote rigging and cheating. So God help Malaysia!
Just few days ago (16 May), Karnataka (India) had their state elections and all who went to vote had their fingers marked with the Indian indelible black ink. Yes, it is supposedly the same black ink our Malaysian Election Committee wanted to import for our recent March 8th elections - scrapping the plan at the 11th hour.
I went to a coffee shop for a drink that day and talked to the smiling 'boss' who showed me his prove of having faithfully done his duty like every good occupant of Karnataka and voted that morning.
The way to put the ink, he mentioned, was to strike a line on the dorsal surface of the (distal phalanx of the) finger, which overlapped the skin and the nail bed... the most safe-prove way of doing it as the ink would move with the nail as it grows and thus splits from the mark remaining on the skin which would stay on for at least a month. (That was what he said. hmm... I still don't get the logic on why it is safe-proof)
But paradoxically... he also said that about 10 years ago he voted at least 4 times in a single election (but now he was lazy). 4 times! How is it possible? I mean there is that indelible ink and all that security etc... I mean if there is one person who can vote 4 times even with that kind of security, just imagine how many phantom voters are out there rigging the system. And let me stress again... they used our favourite and much talk about indelible ink!
Obviously I was dreadfully curious on how that 'boss' did it. If it could happen in India, it definitely can happen in Malaysia as well and all the 'clean and fair' elections effort will just be wasted, being flushed down into the toilet bowl.
... the secret was the use of a certain liquid type chemical substance - from what I heard it sounded like 'phenicol' or something similar to it - which, after dipping your finger into it, dries up on the skin (and nail bed) leaving no detectable trace of a chemical coating.
Then, after the officer had applied the ink, you've voted and are supposed to be done for that day, you get excited with election fever and... rubbing off the chemical coating, you're off to vote again.
Elections must be fair and clean, and governments must be chosen through the right means of which, represents the true voice of the nation and not based on vote rigging and cheating. So God help Malaysia!
1 comments:
Hi,
Indelible ink will not completely eliminate the possibility of cheating in the elections, but it will help to a huge extent to deter multiple voters.
As for using this so-called substance that you can apply to help remove the indelible ink, there are no credible reports anywhere that supports it. There's a lot of rumours and hearsay about how the ink can be removed.
Besides, even if it exists, it's likely that the substance is hard to get hold of and possibly expensive? It is unlikely to be something that you can easily get it in a kedai runcit or stationery shop.
We can only try to prevent any cheating, using any way we can and a reasonable way is by using the ink.
* A member of the BERSIH secretariat
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