Does TM hairpin for East Malaysia?

In Kuching, did a few speed tests:


The Danawa server in Kuching


The Celcom Axatia server in Kuching

The ping times suggest that connections are starting in Kuching, going across the South China Sea, exiting the KL/Cyberjaya exit node, then via MyIX, hairpinning back to Kuching.



Compared with:

The TM Server in KL


The TIME Telecom server in Shah Alam


The MyRepublic server in Singapore


Shows that connections from Kuching are going to KL, and then exiting in the KL exit node, and connecting to West Malaysian/Singaporean servers

A test and traceroute suggests that connections to Brunei from Kuching hairpins via Hong Kong! AS10094 does not peer with any Malaysian ISP at all!







A retest and traceroute indicates the same:





Tracert ping times suggest that it is going via MyIX in KL, and probably a virtual circuit to Kuching.







Speedtests hairpin via Singapore!

Despite Danawa being a ordinary member of MyIX, AS132196 does not peer with MyIX!

Which leads the question: what is the point of having a MyIX node in Kuching when sites hosted in Sarawak probably need to hairpin via West Malaysia/Singapore?

How many times does it take Sarawak Energy to replace a lamp post cover?

So on 6 Feb 2017 I sent this picture to Talikhidmat of light pole missing its cover, because this is Malaysia and that metal thieves are everywhere.




The replaced it with this on 8 Feb 2017. Now credit to them for attending to it quickly after I reported it, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind. So I complained of a job not properly done.





This is what I saw on 15 Feb 2017.

Where is the head banging on wall emoji when it is needed?

Before and after

Before:








After:





Special thanks to DBKU and Talikhidmat!

Twitter Gems, part 75

Source: https://twitter.com/crescentsaber/status/815624089331077120

I'm naming my daughter Yui. Apparently she wouldn't be teased on where her brother NRMA is.

My feedback for http://cilisos.my/you-wont-believe-how-many-malaysians-are-queueing-up-to-register-as-voter/

Well, I did give them feedback. Twice. But no one seemed to care.So this is my platform to have my 2 cents. (Sidelines: why 2 cents, and why is it not indexed to inflation?

Foreword: I’m not part of SPR, so make no claim to represent them. But I can (try to) shed some light on the voter registration system in Malaysia from a legal perspective.

Broadly, to be able to vote in Malaysia (and many other countries), one must:

1) Be known to exist
2) Is a citizen or resident of the country-state
3) Be above a certain age
4) Not disqualified etc

The voter registration exercise is to essentially show the EC that one exists. Essentially it is an administrative exercise which obtains your personal details, such as name, date of birth, address of residence etc, puts it in a form, which is sent to the EC, only then where the real things happen to get one on the electoral roll.

Pursuant to Regulation 13(1) of the Elections (Registration of Electors) Regulations 2002:


The EC is to update the electoral roll every 3 months. Based in my interpretation, theoretically they can do it in any 3 calendar month period, such as Feb – April/May – July/Aug – Oct/Nov – Jan. But as the article points out, it is done in a more sensible quarter block in a calendar year.

What happens is that all registrations between 1 July – 30 Sept inclusive are batched up, and processed centrally in Oct/Nov. This feature article in The Sun gives an insight into what happens. The new registrations are cross verified with the NRD, and I’m guessing that it also receives a list from NRD of people who have been registered as dead in the 1 July – 30 Sept period.

After everything is “verified, corrected and so on”, Regulation 21A & 21 (in that order) of the Elections (Registration of Electors) Regulations 2002 says that the names of those who registered, and the list of names who are to be removed (ie. Death, loss of Malaysian citizenship etc) in the 1 July – 30 Sept need to be displayed. The number of days it needs to be reviewed seems to vary:

This period it gave 14 days for public review: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2015/10/30/electoral-roll-display/
http://www.theborneopost.com/2016/04/21/election-commission-to-display-2016-first-quarterly-electoral-roll-from-today/
http://www.themalaysiantimes.com.my/ec-to-display-2016-first-quarterly-electoral-roll/
http://www.theborneopost.com/2016/08/02/ec-displays-electoral-roll-beginning-today-for-115682-applicants/

This period gave 7 days for public review:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100503151832/http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/11jaw/Article/index_html
http://www.carigold.com/portal/forums/showthread.php?t=229003

Edit: Found the BERSIH submission to the Parliamentary Select Committee for Electoral Reform:

http://www.bersih.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/BERSIH2-FINAL-PSC-SUBMISSION.pdf

which recommended (amongst other things) increasing the number of days where the Revised supplementary electoral roll is displayed, from 7 days to 30 days. Looks like the EC decided to meet half way and do 14 days.

After the 14 days, the new voters, those without any objection to, are gazetted into the electoral roll.

http://www.e-warta.com.my/docs/Pub018%28104%29y2013.pdf
http://www.bersih.org/new-electoral-roll-gazetted/
http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/02/23/fourth-quarter-of-2012-electoral-roll-gazetted/
http://www.federalgazette.agc.gov.my/outputp/pub_20160927_P.U.%20%28B%29%20425.pdf
http://www.federalgazette.agc.gov.my/outputp/pub_20160928_P.U.%20%28B%29%20426.pdf

So it seems that it takes about 2 -3 months to process any updates to the electoral roll.

1) Any number of days to get the completed voter registration forms from the post offices, state EC offices, and political parties, to EC HQ

2) Any number of days to get the electoral roll to state election offices, computerised post offices, government complexes/offices, district offices/land offices, district/municipal councils, multi-purpose/community halls and other designated places
3) 14 days for public consultation
4) At least another 1 month to verify/correct any modifications (ie. People like the author of the Cilisos article who registered but didn’t appear in the roll)
5) Plus any additional time required to deal with any objections raised to new people on the electoral roll

So Charles Santiago is not too far off the mark when he says “it may take 3-6 months before your name is in the system, and eligible to vote”.

Now back to the original article. The speculation was that elections would be “held in March [2017]”. Assuming that it was held in 4-5 March 2017 (elections are always held on weekends), parliament would need to be dissolved by 10 Feb 2017, as it takes the EC about 3 weeks to get the on-the-ground mechanisms working.

For example, the Sarawak State Assembly was dissolved on 11 April 2016, but polling date was only on 7 May 2016. A gap of almost a month.

So for those who registered in October – December 2016, if elections are to be held in March 2017, chances are they wouldn’t be in time to have the 4th quarter electoral roll gazetted in time.

The counter lady who said “it was actually up to SPR to decide where the cutoff point is” is not entirely wrong, but the EC isn’t exactly making up things as they go along. (Well maybe they are. It is Malaysia after all……………..)

For example, the 4th quarter 2012 electoral roll was only gazetted on 2 Feb 2013:

http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/02/23/fourth-quarter-of-2012-electoral-roll-gazetted/

The 4th quarter 2011 electoral roll was only gazetted on 20 March 2012:

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2012/03/19/ec-over-125-million-voters-for-13th-general-election/

The 4th quarter 2009 electoral roll was only gazetted on 24 Feb 2012:

http://www.bersih.org/malaysia-now-has-11-2-million-voters-ec/

There is a pattern, which does suggest that if an election was called on March 2017, those who registered in October – December 2016 might not make the cut off, as once parliament is dissolved, the government machinery (theoretically) comes to a halt, including the electoral roll gazette process.

In saying that. it is very poor form that the EC did not return calls from Cilisos or attempted to clarify their questions questions or issue an official statement. It only adds into the mistrust and the perception of non-independence of the EC.

Finally:



Not to be pedantic, but that’s a table, not a graph!

My feedback to http://cilisos.my/can-malaysians-vote-from-overseas-in-2018-bersih-wants-to-know-too/

Relevant XKCD comic here.

On 19 July 2017, Cilisos published an article, titled "Can Malaysians vote from overseas in 2018? Bersih wants to know too!" Essentially a platform to promote Global BERSIH, I had some comments to the original article.

The article is a tad confusing to be honest. It seems to confuse Overseas Voting with Postal Voting. While Overseas Voting is part of Postal Voting, Postal Voting IS NOT Overseas Voting. Think of it this way: an apple is a fruit, but not all fruits are apples.

The right to do postal voting overseas (minus Citizens of Malaysia residing in Singapore, southern provinces of Thailand, Brunei and Kalimantan) for plebs like me (aka non-civil servants, military personnel and students abroad) is codified in P.U. (B) 9/2013, made under the power of paragraph 3(1) (e) of the Elections (Postal Voting) Regulations 2003.

In the 2013 General Elections, Overseas Voting (ie. Going to a Malaysian Embassy/High Commission/Consulate to put a piece of paper in a diplomatic mail bag) was performed. Malaysian nationals who were eligible to vote from outside Malaysia had to apply for it, and had their voting papers posted to the Malaysian Embassy/High Commission/Consulate’s designated as polling centres.

Essentially Overseas Voting is Postal Voting at the Malaysian mission. This is what Singapore does. Ballot papers are sent to a Singapore mission, and Singaporean voters need to make their own way to the Singapore mission to physically cast the vote in the Singapore mission.

Postal Voting on the other hand, means the voting ballot papers are delivered to an address, which may or may not be a Malaysian mission, outside of Malaysia (or outside of Sarawak but inside Malaysia in the case of the 2016 Sarawak state elections). The voting ballot papers are then returned, not in the diplomatic mail bag, but via “normal” (in practice courier) post.

I agree with one part of the article however, it does seem like KLN doesn’t have a process for implementing Overseas Voting for their missions. On that point I do agree that Global BERSIH has something to fight for on the run up to the 14th General Elections.

Source: Someone who drove 12 hours to the Malaysian High Commission to vote in the 2013 General Elections, a Sarawakian who received his 2016 Sarawak state election ballot papers in the post at the comfort of his (rented) home, and a poor suffering soul who has sat through 4 Federal and 3 state elections in Australia.

My experience as a postal voter for the 11th Sarawak state elections

Just realised that I haven't actually publicly written about my experience as a postal voter in the 11th Sarawak state elections, held on 7 May 2016.

Quick recap: The Sarawak State Assembly was dissolved on 11 April 2016. The EC issued a statement on 14 April 2016, stating that postal voting applications would be available on EC website on the same day. The forms were made available around 3pm Malaysian time on 14 April 2016.

The only media report that I could find that mention about postal voting was this article in The Borneo Post, and even then it was a one liner in an otherwise regurgitation of the EC press statement.

I sent off my completed Borang 1B on 15 April 2016 by way of email to upup@spr.gov.my. Received a confirmation email on 18 April 2016 that my application as a overseas postal voter had been accepted.


My completed Borang 1B which I submitted

Nomination day was 25 April 2016.

I did not hear anything after the automated email from the EC on 18 April 2016. On 5 May 2016 I was at home down with a cold, so I sent off an email 9.45 am Malaysian time to upup@spr.gov.my requesting for a follow up.

Around 10am Malaysian time on 5 May 2016 I received a knock on the door, and had a courier with my voting papers. It was sent out on 3 May 2016 to my address.



The instructions were clear and not dissimilar to what I experienced voting as a postal voter in the 2013 federal elections. However, for my vote to count it had to arrive at the returning officer by 5pm on polling day, which was on 7 May 2016.





I looked around, and even with DHL/FedEx, and sending it off before 5pm on the day that I received my ballot papers, the earliest that my ballot papers would arrive was the morning of 9 April 2016. There was no way for my vote to arrive at the returning officer of my constituency by election night.



Overall I was impressed with how quickly the EC uploaded the forms to their website, and that my ballot papers were actually couriered to me.

I reached out to BERSIH, with the recommendation that early voting for postal voters be held on a much earlier from election day, to allow for time for the postal ballot papers, especially those who are overseas, to reach the returning officer on time, to be made for their.

Articles like this suggest that many Sarawakians outside of Sarawak and Malaysia not aware that they are able to postal vote even if they are in Malaysia, even if they are outside of Sarawak.

BERSIH did reach out back to me, by way of Zoe Randhawa (Advocacy and Education Officer, BERSIH 2.0 Secretariat), asking if they were able to include my experience in their observation report. I was more than happy for them to. They also asked if was willing to sign a statutory declaration or appear as a witness. Notwithstanding that I'm physically in Australia, I was happy to. However, nothing else has happened since then.

From their feedback it seems that there were 106 registered overseas postal voters for the 11th Sarawak state elections. I wonder how many of them were able to send their ballots in on time? I did follow up in asking if there was any data on where (which country) the 106 registered overseas postal voters were located; however I never received any further correspondence from BERSIH.


My ballot paper that never made it

Overall it was a surprisingly positive experience as one of the first a postal voters for the 11th Sarawak state elections. I think the key takeaway is for the EC to allow more time for the votes to arrive back to the returning officer, especially when the electorate may be spread over vat differences.