GE 2008 Vote to Deny 2/3 Majority of BN

...Salams,chances are not many people will read what im about to write about the soon to be elections in our beloved country. The reason being I have only given my blog address to very few people and the fact that my writing is probably not very interesting to most people.

First and foremost i would like to welcome those who are first timer voters. In a democratic system the right to vote should never be taken for granted. The process of voting is probably the closest thing most citizens get, to be part of the process of decision making in the future of the country. Although one vote does not make a difference, it is recorded that you have put your view and contributed to one political party or the other. Thats democracy, majority wins,even by one vote ! Of course its not as simple as that for there are variations in the democratic system-its not purely by the total number of popular votes but by parlimentary seats in commonwealth countries and by electrol college in the American system. Im not going into the details of how the various system works for that responsiblity lies with anyone who wants to understandthe various democratic process.

The objective of my writing today is towards the Malaysian voters for the coming general elections. I hope the voters will take this opportunity to vote and vote wisely. I hope voters will vote to state their dissatisfaction towards many of the policies that is currently being carried out by the government. Again if i were to go into the details and analysed the various policies, it will take a very long paper to adress the various issues and policies. One also needs to be objective and not be emotional and have built in prejudices ( this is not easy-as for sure you belong to a race a religion a group etc ) But as an educated person-you must always look at things objectively.

The Government of the day is very smart ( at least the advisors ) it knows that most Malaysians dont read enough. While most read newspapapers, they read different newspapers. Most Malays read the mainstream Newspapers-Berita Harian,Utusan Malaysia,to a lesser extent the Utusan Jawi. A substantial amount read NST or the Star for Englisg Edition. ( Malays and other Malaysians who read English edition read the Star more than the NST ) Unfortunately the younger generation of Malays dont read as much as their counterpart of other races especially the Chinese who read the English and Chinese Edition rather extensively.

Different issues is highlighted differently in each vernucalar paper thus the "same issues" is look at differently by each community and clouded with racial prejudices. Thus very important issues which has national significance ( in terms of unity,identity ) takes a very racial perspective,whereas it should not. For example the issue of Chinese Schools. For a country that has been independent for 50 years we are still discussing issues on the number of Chinese schools etc. The Malay majority government will make statements that it supports Chinese school and will give money ( which the community doesn need anyway ) to increase the number of Chinese school and will move the near empty schools to more populated area to maintain the number of Chinese Schools.

The fact is that the Chinese school system is very good. For Chinese school that has very low student population it is more advisable to make the local population ( Malays,Chinese or Indians) to attend these schools,rather than move these schools or force the students to attend national schools. The Chinese school should also adapt more to reflect its Malaysianess whether in Curriculum or appearence so that the national objective of unity and identity can be acheived. This is easier said than done-but the current practise of increasing Chinese and Indian schools so that the community is happy is playing along racial lines that is suitable to the agenda of the ruling coalition. The issue is not look at objectively but look at from the practical point of view-especially for the political survival of the current racial biased political ruling coalition.

So what does the Newspapers do ? They tell the story that each "community" wants to hear, not of the issues of these schools in the context of National Identity and Unity. This is again a major point in which the country has to settle and discuss and agree-but it cannot be solved by just building more Chinese n Indian schools in the country ! ( N by going to the Malay rural areas and building more religous schools-which is not happening anyway, because the ruling party is worried that this will create more supporters for the opposition ). This is only one major issue which has been dealth wth wrongly by the current government-and not analysed properly by the Newspaper and given the wrong information and impression to the Masses.

For the next two weeks i hope most Malaysians will look at the track record of the current government and be fair to the various political party,look at the candidates not just at the party they represent. We want stability,we want peace but we also want a strong and honest government. We should deny the ruling coalition its 2/3 majority, we should vote out deadwood ploticians and we should make our voices be heard.

by sanzamo