There has been lots of thoughts swirling around my mind recently. Some serious, some personal, some downright puerile (thanks Jo, for reminding me of the existence of this word).
Today, I want to talk about something serious. The upcoming elections.
Lets break it down to the simplest possible dissection. In Malaysia, the reality is that politics is alwiz going to be broken down racially. This is how the cake is going to be cut regardless of how you look at it, how you wish it, so you might as well accept that this is the way the cookie crumbles and hence formulate the best possible action. The culture, fears, stigmas, stereotypes, perceptions, are too deeply ingrained over 50 years.
The Indians will alwiz vote MIC. Why? Seldom will there be an Indian who votes Opposition. They may verbalize that they do, but come time to cast their ballot, its Semivalue all over again. Indians can roughly be broken down into 3 types. The rich (who will always vote MIC because it is due to the cronyism, nepotism and contacts/under table handout system that they got rich), the middle class and the lower classes (who are so poor that any form of handout or monetary gift can buy their votes; they are so poor and live hand to mouth that they are merely concerned with survival, and whoever can assist financially will be their hero; ideals of democracy and due process of law is not within their sphere of concern). Come time for elections, MIC, with generous handouts (to buy votes) given by big brother (UMNO la, who else), will go to Indian dominated areas, usually rural or the most dumpy derelict areas, and pave some roads, offer RM200 cash, etc, some middling sum, and this is usually sufficient to guarantee an MIC vote. The latest tactic is to provide instant ICs and hence legitimacy to the 20,000 Indians currently dispersed around various estates around the country who have no ICs, and in return, get an MIC vote. Yes, this is how Semi Value secures and buys his votes. These 2 demographics are quite securely MIC. Opposition parties without the budgets required to buy the poor voters' votes can thus forget about MIC. This leaves the middle class. Middle class voters are usually apathetic, or fence sitters who rely on themselves (being professionals or SMEs), or more in tune with issues like justice, democracy, transparency, corruption etc.
The Chinese voters can be roughly categorized into 4 kinds as well. Those who are steadfastedly pro MCA/BN due to cronyism/nepotism, those who are cowardly, those who are emotional, and those who are logical/apathetic. The first type is a MCA/BN goner, well in their back pockets, so screw them. The cowardly will choose MCA/BN again because to them, if they make RM10, and they give RM4 as under counter money, and only keep RM6, it is still RM6. That is all they care about, that they still have their RM6, and screw the injustices, corruption, etc because it isn't affecting them, and, they rather keep that RM6 then to vote another party and risk losing that RM6 even though potentially they could make RM8. The emotional will always choose DAP because it is ingrained in them that DAP is pro Chinese and everything else will make their life more miserable. Hence, we need to appeal to those who are logical/apathetic.
The Malay voters are very simple: Apathetic, BN or religious zealots. That about covers it all. Those who are lazy/incompetent/selfish/shameless/greedy will want to retain what is giving them such a wonderful, comfortable, easy life hence BN, those who are religious zealots and will follow whichever party guarantees the way to Islamic heaven (PAS voters, you may stand), and the rest are just apathetic who see no reason to change status quo.
Regardless of what the Opposition does, REGARDLESS, the BN will win again. Regardless. That is a given that goes without saying. Look at Ijok and Machap. The Election Commission (EC) works for the BN, the media is part of BN's well oiled and well financed population controlling (the modern day Big Brother of Orwell's 1984) machinery, there are phantom voters, bought votes, specially designed voting system i.e. split the votes via location and the various opposition parties that can be voted for in different areas etc. We can never win. The Malay population is too large, the Chinese upper class and the Indian upper/lower class will all vote BN.
So why should we bother?
Because ladies and gentlemen, dissent is in the air. Petrol prices are rising, toll prices are rising, our corruption index is rising, our FDI inflows are weak, our FDI outflows are super strong, our currency has devalued dramatically (and shows no signs of being readjusted for fears of affecting our exports which can only compete on price since we have such a bad quality culture), justice transparency and democracy is all but a myth, racial tensions are rising, pollies have their hands in every pot, etc etc the list goes on. Its a joke! This is an insult to our intelligence and dignity, it makes a mockery out of you and me.
People are starting to be aware. Change is imminent. Change is in the air. People are demanding for it. This is our chance to deny them that 2/3 majority in Parliament. And THAT is what we should gun for, a very realistic goal. Don't bother defeating BN. Aim small. First, deny them that 2/3. Every single day, our rights and privileges are being gradually eroded as the Constitution keeps changing and changing not in favor of us. The day Mahathir emasculated the Rulers by removing their powers to affect the Constitution and left us in Parliament's hands, this whole debacle started. The only way to stop this is to deny them that 2/3.
So how do we gain the votes to swing it this way? First of all, we can identify acros the spectrum thatr the only targettable demographic are the middle class Indians and Chinese, and everyone else who is logical, practical and apathetic. How do we make the non voters vote Opposition and the non Opposition voters of the above categories to vote Opposition?
2 pronged approach.
1 - Get the apathetic to vote. Not quite sure how, this one must think some more. But once they decide to vote...who to vote for?
2 - We ALL already know the current party sucks. But we need to have a very viable alternative. The Opposition cannot just attack the current govt and then say hence vote us. The Opposition is very disunited. There are no practical policies offered, no practical solutions to the nation's woes. No tangible economic policy, foreign policy, tax policy etc. Granted, it is hard to get their message across on the Govt's well polished anti Opposition media machinery. But the reason why more people are NOT voting Opposition is because they are not sold that the Opposition reallly can offer something better.
Moving on, either Malaysia is screwed because we really do not have a viable Opposition with good sound policies that can stand on their own merit, or, the Opposition if it does have those policies and is not merely a Govt watchdog, then it should do a better job of articulating and disseminating information regarding these policies. With that in place, more rational and sound minded indivs will vote for them, fence sitters will switch, and the apathetic will have someone worthwhile to vote for.
