Philosophy of new voters registration

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Always, always you hear Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat harping on importance of new voters registration for their party to win the polls. Always, always we hear anecdotes by politicians that registering new voters will add more votes to their party..

Sure or not?

In this age of more heightened human and consumer rights, how can UMNO, MCA, MIC, PAS, DAP, PKR, etc., not realise that most people who aren’t already registered aren’t registered for a reason?

That big reason being they don’t WANT to be registered? That the major reason being they don’t TRUST the political parties to do the lawmaking job effectively?

Consequently, even if you get them to register, it’s going to be tough to get them to actually turn out to vote.

Ain’t that a lot of time and energy wasted for minimal potential return?

Amazing isn’t it, the unthinkingness of our politicians…

On the illness of UMNO, MCA, MIC, other components and their NGOs

A physician visited the Marquis of (pick any from UMNO/MCA/MIC/other components/NGOs or if you prefer, Perkasa) and from the complexion of the latter the physician noted that he was looking at a sick man. The physician told the Marquis his observation, but not having any symptom of discomfort, the Marquis did not take heed.

Five days later, the physician saw the Marquis again and on looking at his complexion repeated his previous warning and added that his condition had worsened, but again the Marquis would not listen to him.

Another five days later the physician again met the Marquis and told him that he could observe that the Marquis’ illness had now become even worse than on the two previous occasions when they saw each other, but again the Marquis maintained that he was in good health and paid no attention to the physician.

Five days later the physician came to see the Marquis and left without uttering a word. Thinking that the physician was admitting his own mistake by keeping silent, the Marquis sent someone to ask the physician why he left without giving any advice to his lordship. The physician told the messenger that the illness of the Marquis had reached a state which no medicine could cure and no amount of medication could have any effect and hence he could not have given any useful advice.

Five days later the Marquis fell ill and quickly sent for the physician. However, the physician had already left. The Marquis died shortly afterwards.

Jom! Kita beri undi pada calun

An anonymous commentator suggested this:

“JANGAN PANGKAH PARTI TAPI PANGKAH CALUN.”

A parent resolved to do this:

“Why we parents are not happy? One, some of the parents have many schooling kids. If f5 one have to spend nearly $1600 on the first day of school, imagine you have 5 kids and some in colleges where they need $500/600 pmth for food and books. Perbelanjaan biasa mcm mana?

My thots? Even cikgus wants extra income. Some by giving tuition, some by enforcing extra payments from students and parents. This did not include monthly request from school on tshirts, files, seminars, classes etc. This has to stop and my resolution in the next GE is to choose candidates, not the party.”

A Member of Parliament from Barisan Nasional pleaded the same:

“Amid the familiar speculation on the imminent 13th General Election, it is imperative for the voters to be more discerning on making their choice, come polling day. We should gauge and judge the candidates not merely on their party affiliation or their one-off statement made on certain issues, but instead their consistency in upholding certain virtues or values should be given top marks.”

So, will the above be harbinger of the voting trend for the Malaysian 13th General Election?

Aging BN political parties don’t understand generationism

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Longevitity in politics is admired for its resilience. However, in the world that is constantly in a state of flux, shifting from generations to generations after WWII, Baby boomers to Generation X to Generation Y and now the Generation Z, political parties which have been there since Merdeka seriously need to learn and re-learn new ways to engage with their voters.

Forget the old methods of ‘servicing’ the voters by simply playing the middlemen eg: to type support letters to help them apply for some things. Or just indulging in charity work. Or worst, interfering with the education system. That ain’t  the lawmaking and policymaking your voters put you up for.

In case, ye olde political parties haven’t noticed, your voters are now literate and can write by themselves. Don’t believe it? Just check what they say of you and your party in the internet.

Forget the antagonizing ‘criticize and hit below the belt’ method you are wont to indulge in Twitter. They are a huge turn-off to current voters who have started to develop a taste for fair play.

It is well to quickly learn how to update your communication methods to engage. Start within your own party – start by training your own members before your political party caused itself to be an embarrassment in eyes and ears of the listening public. And then, lose in the General Election.

BN and PR lost. Ku Li won Galas by-election

For those Malaysians easily drunk on ‘victory’, for the politically uninitiated and for those who thought they know real politiks.

Barisan Nasional component parties have looooong way to go to regain back lost gound prior 308. This is not a time to celebrate, act cocky or thumping of chests. It is not even a victory for them cybertroopers who have no inkling of political ideology in their tweet little universe.

Suffering Pakatan Rakyat and its components PKR, PAS, DAP, have a looooong way to go to reach Putrajaya.

Therefore, to all Malaysia political parties from opposite divides, please go back dutifully to the drawing board and conduct many more cadre trainings for your party members.

Don’t you dare serve us anymore under-qualified or puppet candidates in the next General Election.

Hey, gimme some truth

This is a special song dedication to political parties who claim they represent us communities (Chinese, Indian, Malays, dll) when their party constitution say clearly that they are representatives for their own party members only.

…

I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

I’ve had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope

I’m sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mama’s little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth now

I’ve had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of Tricky Dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
It’s money for dope
Money for rope

Ah, I’m sick to death of hearing things
from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

I’ve had enough of reading things
by neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

Everybody now, let us sing together with John Lennon

Speech for BN political leaders: Are you brand Barisan Nasional?

“… Whether we realize it or not, we members of UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, et al, are involved in the brand Barisan Nasional.

I hope the first thing you do when selecting your next role as a BN member is to unleash the potential of the coalition.

BN, while maybe not the sexiest name in the current political business, offered me an underrated hipness factor and the horizon to transform into something even more special than prior Merdeka.

All BN parties must consider to operate like a startup with the stability of a 59 year-old political vessel.

We must come out of the rough sea and work feverishly to repair our brand reputation in a giddying political demography.

BN is a great place for its members; BN members made the right choice in the first instance.

But how would new voters know all this? How would they become aware of what we can do to make lives even better for their future and Malaysia?

First task on hand is to overhaul the social media activities for our membership and install savvy customer relation efforts in our public conversations in either Twitter, blog or Facebook.

…

Okkk, now over to you, Najib Tun Razak, Chua Soi Lek, Samy Velu, Koh Tsu Koon, et al. If you still need ideas to transform this into rousing speeches for your party members, please do not be too shy to ask me.

To do next GE or how to choose your Cabinet Ministers of Malaysia

Had a crazy brainwave after a juicy delicious pear from China (China boleh! Except in football, hehehe).

Ok, we already have a 3 party system in place (3rd party is still wobbly but its there). Shall we the rakyat go another step to test the ability of 1Malaysia to survive the New Economy of 2020?

To step up is so simple. We just need to practice by doing the things we do daily… Yup, just by reading and listening to the news – newspapers, new media, blogs, radio news, talkshows. And, by talking to neighbours, friends at the kopitiam, while shooting pool, fishing, after watching footie, etc.

Then we put ourselves to the test at General Election….. just tick the fella with the most capacity/ability to be a policy making Minister in the Cabinet of Malaysia Government. (regardless of whether they’re from UMNO, MCA, MIC, PKR, DAP, PAS, etc)

You see, every time we voted for a Member of Parliament, indirectly we voted also for a potential Minister of the Cabinet – It is from the pool of Member of Parliaments that the Prime Minister has to choose his team members to sit in the Minister seat.

So, if you’ve ticked the vote box for a silly guy who will raise his toy keris or you’ve voted for an Ah Beng who can’t speak our national language, or a well dressed bumpkin who have absolutely no idea what is national policymaking…. Don’t blame them the stupid ministers for not doing their job. They just weren’t equipped to do ministerial work – they are enjoying the honours of sitting in a nice office because you’ve elevated them into that point of authority to mess up your country’s wealth, education, health and future direction.

Yup, in modern Malaysia, we the voters have voted always for a pool of ministers by elevating the ill-equipped to positions of authority by way of the Peter Principle. (The Peter Principle is the principle that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”)

Now, ain’t that a revelation for us dumb dumb voters?

Poor Najib Tun Razak, how now to get the New Economic Model going before the androids consume our employment market?

(Ta…I’m going back for more pears and FIFA finals footie winner analysis.)

Hulu Selangor (P.94) by-election

Good to hear that BN is giving chance to first timer contestant and fresh face to election, P. Kamalanathan (MIC information chief).

Good also to hear PKR is fielding Zaid Ibrahim, a former minister in Malaysian government (also previously Kota Bahru MP 2004-8).

Good luck to independent candidates: Johan Mohd Diah and  V.S. Chandran.

It is very interesting to hear both sides of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat extolling what they think is good and wanted by people of Hulu Selangor.

Dear Hulu Selangorians, are all these representative proclamations made on your behalf good enough to represent what you, the Hulu Selangorians really want?

Would you be easily swayed by people who belittle you on your choice or decision to support a particular candidate?

Would you succumb to wishes of people who feed you rumours, unsubstantiated stories or scandals unrelated to your pursuit of happyness or daily existence as an everyday constituent of Hulu Selangor?

Remember, your decision and who you elect to represent your voice in Parliament as Hulu Selangor MP on the 25 April 2010 is your right to bear.

Protest at Australian Hi Comm and KJ the chameleon

“Join us for a peaceful protest against the Aussie lawmakers’ interfering. Wednesday 17th, 10am at Aussie HiComm, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng.” invited the sms.

Twaang… struck a patriotic chord within my Malaysian soul.

It is terribly insolent to intimidate a sovereign neighbour country’s courts or influence the course of its rule of law, don’t you think? I wonder why these 50 Australian lawmakers didn’t protest earlier before the trial started. They have internet news in Australia too, you know.

And so, this blogger quickly made a few phone calls to cancel some Chinese New Year visits to relatives. The ang pows will have to give way. And not to mention, my tooth’s broken filling’s visit to the dentist.

With a gnashing pain on tongue (beware how sharp a broken filling is, ouch.) I joined the bloggers protest.

I thought it was a bloggers protest, nothing to do with political parties? Rocky said so to reporters and I believe him.

But, I was distracted by the large crowd of BN youth + a sprinkling of ladies.

MCA youth towkays not even one in sight. MIC youths were there.

Makkal Sakti Party won for the most catchy looking banners of the day. But, need to catch up on their maths.

Then I saw Khairy Jamaluddin making a speech denouncing the naughty 50 Aussie lawmakers’ action.

That’s nice, here was a BN youth leader actually demonstrating his understanding of the rule of law and sovereign rights.

Too bad it doesn’t jive with public perception of him. You remember the stories, the SIL (son in law), ECM Libra, the government interfering 4th floor image that just won’t go away even as he may have gotten over that part of oral history.

Truth be told, yesterday Khairy did good at the demo. But The Malaysian Insider is saying that Khairy’s got RM2million from Najib Razak for UMNO Youth to run some events. I hope Khairy the Oxbridge graduate realise that events only work for the moment only. Smart politicians make sure they work consistently with their publics, not just organise some events to show their concern or worse, ‘tunjuk power’.

If you dream of leaving a footprint in Malaysia politics game, Khairy, you’ve got to decide what you’re gonna be about. You’ve got to decide what principles you are going to stand up for. Rule of law? Human rights? For whom and by whom? We’ve already have one famously acknowledged ‘chameleon‘ and Malaysia is too small a country to accommodate more than that.