Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Yeah! My article got published.
You know my blog entry yesterday, titled People Power. Well, I sent it to my favourite online newspaper, Malaysiakini.com and it was published under the Letter section. They changed the title to make it more interesting, "Deny BN two-thirds majority and let them ‘work for us’". It's been a while since this sort of thing happened, the last time it was only during my university days.
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
People Power!
It is kind of pathetic that our only way of participating in the democratic process is by casting one teeny weeny vote. From this vote, the contestant with the majority votes, even by one vote, will get to be the representative either at the state or Parliament. It's a simple process and we've been doing it regularly every 5 years or so since we obtained independence.
I guess we're doing quite well for a nation of 47 years. But there's always this niggling thought at the back of my mind, "Could we have done better?"Could there be less corruption at all levels of our society? Must two prime ministers who came into power during my lifetime begin their administration talking about corruption and clean administration? Did it mean nothing was done by the former PM that the latter one had to start all over? Could crime be reduced instead of we're getting all these weird acts of crime being done?
I'm sure people will tell me, instead of pissing about it from the outside, join the party and do something about it. Yeah right, the image of a guy in the Sungai Buloh prison came to mind. Better just to shut up and put up.
There is another way but it requires for most common people like me to conspire in the general election and return more opposition candidates in the Parliament. No need to let them win any states, just put more of them in the Dewan Rakyat. Better still, deny the symbolic 2/3 majority that the ruling party covets so much. There's no constitutional significant at all for one party to obtain 2/3 majority. You only need a simple majority to form a government anyway. It's just a symbol to show that so many people support it and they would have 5 years to do anything they want.
Wouldn't it be great if the 2/3 majority is denied? The ruling party would realise that even though many people voted for them, a considerable amount also voted for the other party. It would say to itself, "Hmmm, we cannot just do as we like anymore. We must govern better, give better service, be a cleaner administration. We need to show to the other voters that voted to other side that we will be better so that in 5 years time, they will vote us back."
The problem with this country is that, when the ruling party loses a state like the one I'm working in now, Terengganu, it doesn't try to show that it is a better party. Instead it punishes the voters by taking away the bulk of the funds for the state and give them to the ruling party politicians for them to disseminate to the people. The people would like that, who wouldn't like free money right? But in the long run, it will have a bad effect. Say you have RM1000. You give RM100 to 10 families. I think most of them would go off to buy food or spend a day in Kuantan. What if you invest that money in buying books for your children? They will get knowledge and can use that knowledge to improve their lives later on. Are families responsible enough to go out and buy books for their children? No, that's why we need a responsible government which will arrange all these for us. Build schools, train better teachers, get more police force on the streets to thwart of criminals and improve public amenities. Right now the so-called 'wang ehsan' goes through the ruling party politicians first without any proper monitoring or accounting done and it is up to them to disseminate the money to whomever they like. Who dares to deny that those politicians won't take some of that money and channel them into their own pockets? In the end the voters lose out, the people lose out. And one parting thought, if I am one of those politicians, would I work hard to ensure the ruling party win in the coming election in the state? I won't because the wang ehsan might not be there for my taking anymore. So might as well lose but at least I'll still have money to bring home at the end of the day.
I guess we're doing quite well for a nation of 47 years. But there's always this niggling thought at the back of my mind, "Could we have done better?"Could there be less corruption at all levels of our society? Must two prime ministers who came into power during my lifetime begin their administration talking about corruption and clean administration? Did it mean nothing was done by the former PM that the latter one had to start all over? Could crime be reduced instead of we're getting all these weird acts of crime being done?
I'm sure people will tell me, instead of pissing about it from the outside, join the party and do something about it. Yeah right, the image of a guy in the Sungai Buloh prison came to mind. Better just to shut up and put up.
There is another way but it requires for most common people like me to conspire in the general election and return more opposition candidates in the Parliament. No need to let them win any states, just put more of them in the Dewan Rakyat. Better still, deny the symbolic 2/3 majority that the ruling party covets so much. There's no constitutional significant at all for one party to obtain 2/3 majority. You only need a simple majority to form a government anyway. It's just a symbol to show that so many people support it and they would have 5 years to do anything they want.
Wouldn't it be great if the 2/3 majority is denied? The ruling party would realise that even though many people voted for them, a considerable amount also voted for the other party. It would say to itself, "Hmmm, we cannot just do as we like anymore. We must govern better, give better service, be a cleaner administration. We need to show to the other voters that voted to other side that we will be better so that in 5 years time, they will vote us back."
The problem with this country is that, when the ruling party loses a state like the one I'm working in now, Terengganu, it doesn't try to show that it is a better party. Instead it punishes the voters by taking away the bulk of the funds for the state and give them to the ruling party politicians for them to disseminate to the people. The people would like that, who wouldn't like free money right? But in the long run, it will have a bad effect. Say you have RM1000. You give RM100 to 10 families. I think most of them would go off to buy food or spend a day in Kuantan. What if you invest that money in buying books for your children? They will get knowledge and can use that knowledge to improve their lives later on. Are families responsible enough to go out and buy books for their children? No, that's why we need a responsible government which will arrange all these for us. Build schools, train better teachers, get more police force on the streets to thwart of criminals and improve public amenities. Right now the so-called 'wang ehsan' goes through the ruling party politicians first without any proper monitoring or accounting done and it is up to them to disseminate the money to whomever they like. Who dares to deny that those politicians won't take some of that money and channel them into their own pockets? In the end the voters lose out, the people lose out. And one parting thought, if I am one of those politicians, would I work hard to ensure the ruling party win in the coming election in the state? I won't because the wang ehsan might not be there for my taking anymore. So might as well lose but at least I'll still have money to bring home at the end of the day.
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