Aftermath......

PRN Melaka 2021 ended yesterday evening and I guess, what is there to say, right? Except that the echoes of disappointment, a tinge of hopelessness and despair rings loud and lingers on. Everyone knows what the results were and all of the Melaka people would have to accept that decision made whether we like it or not. I guess, while some of us feel down, disappointed and agitated but let us not forget that there are others who are celebrating and revelling in joy and rightly so too. If there are winners in any competition; then of course , we have to be gracious in defeat too. For me, I congratulate the winners for they are chosen on the ballot paper. Whether they did it in the right manner or not the right manner, the results speak for themselves. Sure, we can all be sore losers , sour grapes and talk loudly at coffeeshop; straining our neck muscles and neck blood vessels by saying this and that but what is the point if we ourselves, do not even understand the fundamental basic of what voting is all about. If you do not turn up for voting, then, you are as guilty and as dumb as a piece of ass because you chose not to exercise your right as a citizen of this country. Then, you do not have the right to make any comments on the election process or even how good or how bad the state government if going to be. In all truth, you do not even have the right to make any noise because you did not even lift your bloody finger to the mark the ballot paper nor have the guts to do so. You are as good as an empty vessel with all your excuses and what not that is only known to you. 

Please, spare me your excuses of “what’s the point to vote if the assemblyman/woman would then jumped to another party?”, “what is there to vote for?”, “ Aiyoo! Covid-19 lah. Can you guarantee my family members would be safe?” (Dumbass, we will all die eventually and it is all in the hands of God, dumbass! ) ,“Ah! This fella will sure win in this constituent! “ bullshit etc etc.  My answer to you is :-  So what! These excuses are flimsy and irresponsible. I want to tell you that irrespective of all these excuses, first and foremost, you are to exercise that right to vote - Who you vote is none of my concern but just come out to vote and the next thing is to do the right thing on who you place your trust in for your vote. Then, that is called a democratic process and even if our preferred candidate losses, at least, it is a fair duel, got it? Never mind if the opposing candidate blatantly uses the influence of money ( Cash is King slogan! ) or goods or even essentials for his/her campaign; the important thing is that you just do your duty as a citizen. 

I am appalled of the low turnout for voting. It is either we are overly concern of the hyped up Covid-19 scare to deter people from coming out to vote or simply assuming the seat is safe for this candidate and that candidate. I’ll tell you what I did on the election morning. I woke very early that morning. I sent my daughter to vote at the nearby centre at a different constituent. It was all done in less than 20 minutes. Then, we proceeded to my voting centre together for another constituent with my wife to vote. The SOP for voting was super relaxed, safe and good. Within 20 minutes, we got our verifications done, collected out voting papers, marked our preferred candidate and both of us were done. It was one of the fastest voting process I have ever done in my life though there was good control of crowd and voting process was early. It wasn’t like in 2018 whereby the crowd was big but very controlled under a very hot sun then.  We weren’t thinking of who is going to win and so on. Sure, we have our own preferred candidates to win but what was important is that we did our citizen’s duty that morning. We casted our votes and that was important. Then we went for breakfast and looking around the noodle shop, we could see so many abled bodies and people enjoying their meals and not even having their fingers marked meaning they have not voted that day. Overhearing conversations that some of them are not going to vote this time sickens me in the gut. These are able young/old bodies. Hey, even the handicapped and the wheel-bound tried their best to cast their votes while these morons won’t even go to the centres. That sickens me that morning.

As we proceeded to the mall as it was our usual way to spend some time as a family, I noted many young people were without markings while there were some older /middle-aged people were without ink dipped fingers. That indicated that they have not voted. I guess, I had to be thick faced and I approached these strangers and normal able bodied folks if they have voted and that they should vote and exercise their right to vote. Though I received dirty looks, unhappy responces and glaring looks, I was undeterred because voting is the right of everyone and every vote counts to make or break for a candidate.  I really did my best that morning and I even made sure that I sent out Whatsapp messages to friends and family in the afternoon to continue to ask their friends and loved ones to go out to vote. I guess, some people just couldn’t be bothered. I wasn’t ashamed to approach strangers as you might have thought because this action of voting will make or break the future of state and country. There is no such thing as protest and no voting or whatsoever. If you don’t vote because of your protest, you are even dumber than the bloody rat on the street as state laws and legislation will continue to be passed whether you like it or not. With voting, we can, at least , put our voice representative in the House via the elected representatives, to prevent unfair, not good laws or even unbalanced laws to be passed. That’s what voting rights does and means – elect a representative who will bring our voices to the House. Look, this is not ideal talking or things that cannot happen,ok? If our elected representatives are not doing their job to represent our voices, we have that power to vote them out the next time and we should.  That is the power of our vote. Hence, it is essentially important for us to go out to vote in the first place. We may say that our vote is only one vote but when the rest joins in, that, my friends, becomes a majority. Think about it diligently, shall we? Yeah, the elected representatives may screw us this time, but the next time around, we will vote him/her out. That’s the power of voting, ladies and gentleman! You are not insignificant as people paint you to be. Singularly, we may not be strong but in mass, unity is strengthened!

Personally, I really felt very sad for our state and nation. It is that ignorance and stupidity to continue to put the same corrupted people into power by giving them our vote of approval that sickened me. The reflection and implications of the election horrendously sickened me. It also appalled me that people, in their whatsoever excuses, chose to sit this one out. It is always a wrong thing to take yourself out when it comes to elections. This time, by choosing to sit out, we virtually allowed crooks, robbers and thieves to creep right back into the administrations and public office. I am appalled that the public still do not realised nor recognised how seriously failed our state and nation are these days. We are billions in deficit and all the “you scratch my back and I will scratch your back” remunerations will kill our society effectively. Sure, these ill-gotten monies and remunerations will help you short term but in the long run, we will all suffer as a society. I am most frustrated. Are we going to accept corrupted ways and corruption as a norm of our lives now? It sure seemed like it! What a perverse generation we are! Our leaders in high places shout at the top of their voices till their blood veins at the necks almost burst, condemning it but in reality, the opposite occurs and occurs to corrupt from the young to the old as if it is a daily thing in our lives! It’s shameful and it’s a disgusting culture! A disgusting culture exists only to make the corrupt and the corruptors stay in power to loot and plunder the state and nation’s wealth to oblivion.   

I guess, that’s the ugly truth of what is happening and totally my own personal view, totally. Whatever your reasoning, I hope you are happy with it now that you have got your wish. So, stop complaining that life is hard or unfair when you are at the coffeeshop or eateries or cafes or anywhere because you are the main reason all these are happening. I am reminded of a story whereby a newspaper publishing house asked the scholar, G.K. Chesterton ,” What is wrong with our world today?” Chesterton simply wrote back and answered, “ ME “. That’s what is wrong with the world today – ME/ YOU! You could have made a difference and what did you do with that opportunity? Well, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! 

Ladies and gentleman, that’s what wrong with our world today. Evil triumphs when good men/women does nothing! Think about it! However, Hope gives us light and enough reason to continue to fight on, persevere and strive for goodness. Pick up the broken pieces, re-coup, find solutions, encourage and let's start again, shall we? 

Let's re-build our country again and let's be very sure about one thing : Public Enemy No. 1 in this country is CORRUPTION not drugs!  Make no mistake of this!