“May the wind of change, blow our way”

Comments for the post of my conversation with Nick has finally been moderated, check it out.. Sorry, for being late in it’s moderation, blogspot was giving me a bit of trouble…

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It’s Malaysia’s 12 General Elections and I’m finally able to use my right as a citizen to vote for the betterment of my country.

Before the day of the elections, I had been intensively educating myself, on the politics of my area i.e. PJU and the country’s politics. I don’t profess to know a lot or everything, but at least it was sufficient for me to decide whom to cast my vote for.

Most of my life, I had been reading only our mainstream media, which I found out later, a few years ago, was actually manipulated, therefore to equip myself with the knowledge on who to vote for, I turned to the internet to aid me in making an informed choice. And finally the day arrived..

Today is March the 8th 2008, the polling day for us citizens. It was like any other day, I was a woken at about 9 in the morning by my father. (Polling starts in west Malaysia at 8am while in east Malaysia it starts at 730am.)

Thus after a breakfast of lo ma kai (glutinious rice with chicken), I headed to my old primary school, with my parents in tow, to cast my vote. The number of cars were horrible, how thankful I am, that I live only 5 minutes away from my polling station.

At about 9 something, almost 10 I think, we left the house, it was quite warm, and the number of cars, made it seem like we were having a mini traffic jam…

Upon nearing the school, I saw on the road marked in red paint, the words 50m, standing for 50metres. For those who are un-informed, the 50 metres rule is to make sure that the people are only going to vote and not to show off their support for their parties. Within 50 metres of the polling stations, all things associated with any party is disallowed, umbrellas, t-shirts, cap, or fans with any party logo isn’t allowed…

But I guess some people don’t read the papers, cause I saw a women in a BN cap, with a BN umbrella, carrying BN fans… she was stopped by the police at the front gate of the school though, and I was left just shaking my head…

About 2 weeks before elections my dad had went to www.spr.gov.my to check if I was eligible to vote and where to vote, and a few days before that MCA in my area sent us slips with our name, voting number, IC number, saluran (which means which room to go to, to cast your votes) etc..

With my IC in hand and my Nombor Saluran in my mind, I headed for the polling station..

Question: do I look too young to vote? I mean people always assume that I’m older than I look, so this is the first time that I’m kind of taken a back, or maybe I think too much haha

Well when you arrive at the school there are people in yellow shirts, members of the EC (election committee aka SPR aka Suruhan Pilihan Raya.. I think.. but definitely not the Society of Psychic Research haha) Who will show you around.. they merely asked my parents which saluran they are, but ignored me I was like… ok…

Well since I registered to vote like 30 years after my parents, I was in a different saluran... so i approched a boy in a yellow shirt and asked him where my saluran was.. it was a in a different block than my parents...

The process to vote is simple really, just go there, wait outside the classroom till it’s your turn, there were 3 people ahead of me when I arrived. When it was my turn, I merely walked up to the lady, and presented my IC to her, she checked her list, announced my registration number, IC number and name, for the two people sitting at the other corner of the room.

Handed me two pieces of ballot paper in different colours, one for the state and one for the parliament, folded for me.. And I just headed to the booth.. Marked my candidates.. (Their names and parties are there, so there’s no fear of making a mistake) and used the pencil provided to mark my choice.

Walked away from the booth to the two transparent boxes in the middle of the room, where an officer will watch you as you drop the ballots into the correct box, and I exit the room through the other door. A simple enough process and it was quite quick.

Crossed my fingers, hoping the one I vote for wins, and left to meet my parents outside. It was nostalgic being in my primary school again, I was there only about 3 years back to run an errand for my brother, and now that I’m there again it felt so strange. But that was that, with our votes cast, and our fingers crossed, my parents and I, decided to walk home.

That was the end of my first election.

Awaiting the results is really exciting, as I follow Malaysia Kini (www.malaysiakini.com.my - but they are only open to the public for the election period, usually you have to subscribe to read their articles)

It's a ferocious battle going on between the Opposition and Barisan Nasional

From their web site, it’s unofficially announced that DAP’s Tony Pua has won the parliament seat by four thousand votes.. That’s a lot, and both of PJU’s states seats are currently being lead by DAP. Woah.. Something a bit unexpected to me. I thought that the people would vote DAP for Parliament and MCA for state.. though I do believe that if both are the same parties for Parliament and State they will work better.. But we will wait and see..

I will comment no further, and shall post again when the official results are out.. which might take a few days, because I will wait for them to count all the ballots nationwide, which they should be done by tomorrow. And I might not be free due to classes, but we will see..

For DAP supporters, though it’s an unofficial win, keep your hopes up, but even if it’s official, sorry but you can’t go to the streets to party, it's just been announced, to protect the safety of the citizens those kind of things…

For BN supporters, well Chew Mei Fun was a good MP, she was hardworking, and she took time to listen to the people and see to their needs. It is really sad that she had to be sacrificed for the sake of the people. She is a poor sacrificial lamb in the process of waking up BN to the fact that people are not happy with their administration. It is a huge loss, to lose such a good MP.

For the state seats, I don’t know what to comment, because though DAP is leading they are still counting, and apparently my area’s last state seat was held by a guy who didn’t do his job.. I might comment when the results on this is official..

Nationwide, it is also unofficial courtesy of Malaysia Kini, but Kelantan is still in PAS’s hands, and most of the seats in Penang seems to have been won by the opposition, but we will wait and see what is the outcome..

It really looks as if the wind of change has really blown our way… and the people as one united voice have spoken out to the government.I know I was angry at Abdullah earlier because of his callous statement, but overall he is a good Prime Minister, and he has done his best, and he really had a lot of shit, I mean things to take care off when he took office, and he was also hit by the loss of his beloved wife..

Well I wish both BN and the Opposition the best of luck. And we will see if Malaysia’s community did manage to do what they had committed to do when they said they were going to deny BN a 2/3 hegemony.

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from Earth”

I’m reusing Abraham Lincoln’s quote but I found it suitable to use in this case. Besides the first time I used it, it was a gift to the government, now I’m using it for myself

-Oracl3-