It’s been almost 24 hours since the announcement of the elections. Much feeling of anger has subsided, but much of it remains, the feeling we all have against cheaters linger, namely the party who herald themselves with the logo of a balance scale. What are the identifiable problems, possible solutions and conclusive analysis that can be made?
Problems:
1. Demarcated ballot papers rendering it null and void. In Kajang (my polling station) my friend and requested for a change when a dot was clearly at the end of the name of the PKR candidate (coincidence?). She then requested for a change but was then denied by the officer there. What gives? Putting this stained ballot paper would be as good as not coming to vote then.
2. As confirmed by the Bangladesh embassy, large influx of Bangladeshis were reported coming to Malaysia when offered to be Malaysian citizens (supposedly given money to be given blue IC’s and allowed them to vote).
3. Wasted God-knows-how-much on indelible ink which could have been easily removed with commercial cleaning agents in minutes. Should have used this money to buy more cows right?
4. SPR and the police are obviously the puppets of the government. SPR is meant to be neutral body and clearly must have been given some fat bribes to be able to allow all this fuckery. The police are to be loyal to the country - not the government (who thinks money grows from trees).
5. Recounting takes 30 minutes at most. It took almost 5 hours. Wanna count till next General Elections is it?
6. Blackout and a wild ballot box appears. Wow. What is this - Pokemon ar!?
7. Active populist policies (inevitably swaying in votes from rural areas which happens to cross-over with many of the less-educated populace) - strengthening the East Coast for the federal government
8. Biased state-controlled media reporting the elections were done to give the impression that the elections were done fairly. Tell that to my hairy ass.
Solution:
1. The next time you can take pictures of ballot papers. It seems ‘illegal’, but it can be tendered as admissible evidence. Long story short, the reliability of such evidence is not affected. On the flip side, we have an unfair committee grabbing us by the balls, giving us marked ballot papers when we can’t change. That can’t be right.
2. Hard to counter on a personal level. What CAN be done is raising awareness among the people and halting foreigners from being able to vote in OUR General Elections.
3. We need a better solution (get it?) than indelible ink. Either get a stronger formula or scrap this colossal waste of funds.
4. It’s gonna cost a lot, but SPR has gotta go. Abolish the bloody body and get foreign observers.There are too many members of the SPR who have (or may have) ties with the federal government.
5. and 6. Once again, difficult to manage on a personal level - perhaps we can have international bodies to intervene (such as the United Nations). With this, the federal government are no different from Afghanistan warlords, ruling in whatever way suits them fancy. Surely cheating in an election is somewhat criminal! Having the dear PM face ICJ sounds like too good of an offer to refuse. Worse case scenario - we can impose economic sanctions ala Myanmar (back then that is).
7. This, is circular argument that is difficult to break (discussed in conclusion)
8. Force the privatisations of media giants. Ambik kau.
Conclusive analysis: In response to 7. Our federal government clearly does not care about the welfare of the rakyat. If they did, they would have gone for long term solutions when it came to improving the quality of life of the people (such as improving the education system. Me thinks, the reason for the short term plans (i.e. cash handouts especially via BR1M) are executed is because they are compelling incentives for the lower income bracket as well as for those staying in rural areas. They are content with these extra funds.
Uprooting poverty can best be done by providing better education, which in turn allows to better demand jobs and better pay, which allows a better lifestyle. One is is given more and better informed choices in life decisions and will better vote for policies that have a long term kick.
Comparing cash handouts and better education, obviously better education reduces poverty in the long run. SO WHY STICK TO CASH HANDOUTS? Me thinks to have the rural supporters support the federal government, satisfying them for the short term to secure their votes undermines retaliation from the rural areas. It seems, for fear of uprising from rural areas if they were more educated, the federal government can control that area and secure Parliamentary seats. Hence, this is exactly what I meant when the federal government does not give two shits about how your lifestyle becomes (whether you are poor or uneducated), as long as they remain in power.
The circular argument is this - to change populist policies (and fairer distribution of wealth) is to change the members of the parliament (to ones who have brains), but in order to change members of parliament, populist policies need to be changed to educate the people on the need for long term reform, etc.
Changing your profile picture to black is merely one of the many things that can be done
On the bright side (or in this case, dark side) PR won more seats than 2008. And although the federal government played dirty, yet they could not win by a landslide.
Can it be like the end of the film of V for Vendetta, the Big Ben (in a local context, that could very well be Dataran Merdeka) explodes with the accompaniment of the 1812 Overture.
And this is how democracy dies - with a thunderous applause?
