‘Opposition run out of ideas when calling those with unique names as phantom voters’

Posted on May 23, 2012, Wednesday

ROMPIN: The opposition seemed to have run out of ideas to condemn the election system when they started to call individuals with unique names, especially among the Orang Asli community, as phantom voters.

Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Joseph Entulu said it was clearly an insult to those individuals and a total disregard of their cultures.

“These individuals were named with unique names because it has been their culture, especially among the Orang Asli community and the minority ethnics in Sabah and Sarawak.

“The opposition have resorted to playing with names and this shows that they have clearly run out of ideas,” he told reporters after opening the Rompin Orang Asli Students Intellectual Centre here yesterday. The deputy minister said having a unique name was normal for certain people, especially among the ethnic groups, such as Iban and Bidayuh.

Entulu, who is Parti Rakyat Sarawak deputy president, said he was one of those who had a unique name as his middle name, Entulu, deprived from the word ‘Bintulu’, the place where his parents moved to when they were having him.

He said a person’s name was not an issue as long as the person had registered as a voter with the Election Commission.

On Monday, a local English daily reported that the opposition claimed that the EC had registered weird and non-existent names in the electoral roll.

Among the names were ‘Timun’, ‘Kangkung’, ‘Harimau’ and ‘Tepi Jalan’. — Bernama

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