DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT THIS ELECTION!… GUARD THE VOTE; BE A PACA! PACA, the acronym for Polling Agents  and  Counting Agents. They are the people who are authorized by our elections laws to serve on election day. In summary their role is to protect the secrecy of the vote; ensure that balloting is done according to the rules AND they also ensure that only those who are eligible or who are registered get to vote.  As ROSE is an NGO whose vision is to build a community of informed and empowered citizenry who then participates and engage in the democratic process , we see that the PACA role and platform is one of the channels that enables normal citizens to do so. Our trainings are open to  members of the public from all walks of life as long as you are 21 years and above and is keen to learn. Usually we use a mix of English and BM to conduct the training workshop. We conduct the training in a politically –neutral manner and it is later up to them to choose any candidate they wish to help. We only ask that each of them help to promote free and fair elections. Our trainers and facilitators themselves are volunteers.  Our trainings are interactive and fun as we use role-plays to enable participants to get a hands-on feel of the election process as well as their roles and duties as a PACA. Some people think that having elections  means we have a democracy. A democracy will be as good or bad as the citizens that participate in it. It is not only the responsibility to vote whoever the person of your choice to be ur elected rep BUT we need to participate in the process of governance thereafter. Keeping him/them accountable to the rakyat . Which brings me to next point.. Our Voter Registration exercises. ROSE encourages all to register themselves as voters by attending our mobile counters or going to the nearest post office to register themselves. Process of registration takes 4-6 months and there is no better time to get yourself registered than now. ROSE is forever looking for volunteers to help us in our projects and activities. But if one cannot spare the time , one can choose to contribute financially to our cause and work. We have recently put out the call for our friends and supporters to GIVE to ROSE. Last but not least, we sum this morning’s PC by calling  members of the public to TAKE CHARGE, GET INVOLVED , PARTICIPATE. DON’T FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF. ..the best thing you can do this coming Hari Kebangsaan is to devote about 3-4 hours of your time to attend our PACA training session. Pls register your attendance by emailing ROSE at [email protected] or Contact 016-3233361. Our first session will be held on 2nd Sept 2017 (Sat) at Mastermind Training Centre, Green Road Kuching at 1.30 pm. -END- 26TH Aug 2017 Ann Teo     -Spokesperson for ROSE.  Contact for the media; 016-8604998    

  August 10, 2017 Prior to the 11th Sarawak State Elections in 2016, we launched “Jom Jadi PACA!”, an initiative to aggressively recruit PACA volunteers. Polling Agent/Counting Agent (PACA) training has been one of ROSE’s core activities from Day One. PACAs safeguard the secrecy of votes, make sure that each and every vote is accounted for, and that all proceedings complies with election regulations. In the run-up to the elections, we conducted 20 PACA trainings in Kuching, Sibu, Miri, Lawas and KL and coordinated the deployment of PACAs to selected marginal constituencies. To further widen our reach, we also conducted training of trainers (TOT) sessions to empower local ROSE volunteers to become trainers in their own right. Gabrielle, a brand-new ROSE volunteer got an exclusive, front-line view of the electoral process. She says  “ I am 22, and had just came back from studying. I have never voted before and was not in time to register to vote.  So, when I heard about PACA training, I thought if I am not able to vote, why not serve? Learning a bit of everything and gaining the experience is what matters to me most. PACA training conducted by ROSE for me was like voter education; everything I learned is an eye-opener. I had a pretty smooth and uneventful first-time experience during the Sarawak State Elections.  I am hoping that in the coming GE14, I will be able to take on and face more challenging scenarios when I get to serve again.” Continue reading

Rise of Sarawak Efforts (ROSE), a local citizen’s action group dedicated to voter empowerment and free and fair elections, will be having a public session of Project Rumah Baru in collaboration with HAUS KCH on May 20, Saturday, from 1.30 to 5.00 pm. Entry is free of charge. Project Rumah Baru is a civic education workshop module conceptualized by ROSE. This three-hour workshop starts with a scenario - Sarawak has been completely destroyed in a zombie apocalypse, the remainder of the population needs to rebuild Sarawak 2.0. This then follows with a series of three group activities that progress in a logical narrative. In brief, the citizens need to elect a new leadership from a selection of individuals, each of whom have a positive and negative trait. In the second activity, following a period of stability and prosperity, the citizens of this new society need to vote on which services should the leadership provide for its people. The final activity comprises of a game of cops versus robbers, where the leadership attempts to outsmart the conmen who are scheming to steal its money. Continue reading

KUCHING: Rise of Sarawak Efforts (ROSE) does not see why automatic registration of voters is not possible for implementation by the Election Commission (EC) if the post office is able to read the information of one’s MyKad when one turns up to register as a voter. ROSE chairperson Ann Teo said EC was after all already using the information available on the MyKad such as a person’s age and address. Continue reading

KUCHING: Rise of Sarawak Efforts (ROSE), a local citizens action group working on voter empowerment and free and fair election, will launch a voter registration drive for the 14th General Election. “We are starting the 2017 voter registration drives with the hope that more Sarawakians will be able to participate in the upcoming general election. We will set up a booth at Lao Fu Zi Kopitiam in Stutong (next to Unaco Supermarket) from 9am to 5pm this Saturday and Sunday. Continue reading

"Pilihanraya apa?" (What election?) "Undi apa?" (What vote?) "Saya tidak minat". (I’m not interested) Last December, I volunteered with ROSE for a new voters registration exercise in Sarikei. ROSE set up a booth at a youth conference, a big gathering of about 1,500 people. We managed to register 44 new voters in two days, most of which were under the age of 30. Honestly, I expected way more than 44, only to realize that rural work is hard work. This is my first experience in a rural area for voter registration, and the effort needed to secure one new voter is 10 times the effort as in the city. As compared to city folks who thank us for our effort in bringing the voters registration counter to them (so that they need not go to the post office to do it), I struggled with talking to these rural young people (partly due to the Iban language barrier) and had to explain to them what pilihanraya is. Continue reading

In many countries around the world where people have the right to choose to vote or not, there are also some countries that practice compulsory voting where by a certain age, eligible citizens are automatically registered in the system to vote. Currently, there are 31 countries that practice compulsory voting – Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Honduras, Italy, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Philippine, Singapore, Thailand and Uruguay. Countries such as Venezuela and Netherlands, on the other hand, once practiced compulsory voting but since had it abolished. Continue reading

Whoever becomes the ruling government after Polling Day of the Sarawak Elections runs the risk of being labeled as illegitimate. In a democracy like ours, free and fair elections are integral and governments elected into power are deemed legitimate as a result of being there by the ‘will of the people’.  ROSE has received reports from various west Malaysians entering Sarawak in the last couple of days  have not been given the 90-days social visit pass but instead have had this shortened ridiculously to the 5th May 2016. Those affected appears to be opposition political parties and activities and according to DAP it is designed to stop campaigners and polling and counting agents to come in from West Malaysia. If so this will certainly have an impact on manpower and resources of the political parties who might be handicapped by such seemingly arbitrary and unreasonable restriction. Continue reading