Monday, February 25, 2008

Democracy, Malaysian-style

How many of you watched the telecast of the Obama-Clinton debate at the University of Texas last Friday?

Yesterday was Nomination Day in Malaysia, TWO WEEKS before the general election on March 8. The election will be 15 months ahead of the expiry of the present gov't's term, a full 15 months ahead. Everybody who is above 8 years old know the reason for the early election ("Premature election", Mr. Information Minister?) is because the ruling party, BN, wants to prevent the unfortunate ex-deputy prime minister, Anwar, from being elected as he is banned from running for posts/politics until April.

As I watched the Obama-Clinton debate, it occurred to me that while the electorate in the US will have a hard choice deciding the next Democratic Party leader/new US President because they are both excellent candidates, we here have the opposite situation: all the candidates are lousy. That should make it easy for us. But that's exactly what the gov't wants us to do: NOT THINK, just accept whatever. Where else do you hear of an election only one month from the day of announcement? Which other country boasts of racial harmony and yet has a ruling party made up of 3 different parties of the three major races so that they are well segregated and controlled by the prominent party component? And so that the votes of the 2 non-prominent groups are split?

Look at our banners. They are 95% ruling party's banners, paid for by your and my money. Read our papers. Listen to our radios. Watch our TV programs. They are 100% controlled by BN people. From appointment of the highest posts in our judiciary to unexplained access of military bombs used in blowing up unwanted mistresses to IC scams, there are a lot of things not going right. Where is the transparency you promised, oh PM, whom I had so much hope in?

7 comments:

ekeng said...

kaima, i feel so disappointed with the goverment and the parliment..i choose to give up my vote cos i have to go back Labuan to vote..Don't wanna waste my money and time la :)

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

i will clobber u when i c u! give up ur vote?! what's the point of being a citizen? u know very well what's happening, so get back here n vote!there's airasia u know.

ekeng said...

kaima,please don't blame me for this..i have no choice..so that i give up my vote !!

Please don't clobber me la :)

Shan said...

*Sigh* I know what you mean. Things are becoming more laughable day by day

Anonymous said...

Malaysian politicians do say and do the darnest things. gosh!!! so frustrating. Anyone who still have hope in our PM must be hallucinating really badly.

Anonymous said...

I love democracy but is Malaysia heading towards a dangerous path? What can we expect from the corrupt politicians except banning 'Allah' word for Christians and to appease the majority by confiscating Bibles? It is a big concern for freedom loving people.

I wonder a time may come soon when you can't make this kind of blog post. Pray!

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

ekeng: ......

shan: deny them 2/3 majority!

beita jr: yes, d time may come or already has come. the only time they sing the "govt for the people" song is election time. any other time its "people for the govt". outrageous.

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