12 May 2013
Clarification on news carried by www.globalresearch.ca
The article "Malaysia: Failure of US to Subvert the Elections and Install A Proxy Regime" refers.
We view that the characterization of Merdeka Center in this article to be misleading and malicious in its intent. We would like to correct the views presented as follows:
1. Merdeka Center for Opinion Research was officially appointed by the Malaysian Election Commission as an Accredited Election Observer and our work was bound by terms set by the official election body. Our report is currently being completed and will be tabled to the Commission and the public in due course.
2. Charges that Merdeka Center is guided by a foreign government agenda are baseless and misleading. The funding received from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as noted in the article took place three years ago for the purpose of opinion polling and had nothing to do with election monitoring. Funders for Merdeka Center's public opinion programs do not possess editorial control nor intellectual ownership over the direction or content and the results solely belong to Merdeka Center.
3. Merdeka Center is a private organization with clients within the academic, media and Malaysian public sector both federal and state agencies, as well as politicians and groups within Pakatan Rakyat and the Barisan Nasional. It is a testimony to our professionalism and discretion.
4. Merdeka Center's mission is to perform its work professionally and to improve public discourse by providing measured public opinion data to the best of its abilities.
MERDEKA CENTER
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