When I was roped into CITIZEN THINK TANK, a so-called voter education initiative, way back in 2007, I was assured by the two founding members that it was NEUTRAL and NON-PARTISAN. CTT was supposed to provide information, create awareness and promote discussion among voters on the track record of the candidates in their constituencies. The objective was to choose the right representatives who can best serve their constituents. There were joint events and road shows with ALL BLOGs, an association of social political bloggers whose members include Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK), Ahiruddin Attan (Rocky), Nuraina Samad, Big Dog, Brick and Kickdefella.
[I withdrew from the CTT pro-tem committee with another female member when we felt that the guys' mindset on gender roles was rather Jurassic. One of the founders later quit his job at a hi-tech corp to join Malaysiakini and mock the word 'Allah' by posting 'sightings' on strange surfaces such as beef patties on his FB wall. So much for non-partisanship and sensitivity to Muslims' feelings.]
Then Wong Chin Huat, a former student from UM, came into the picture with BERSIH. I was impressed by his supposedly genuine demands for a FREE and FAIR election. Again, I was assured that it was INDEPENDENT and NON-PARTISAN. However, I was glad I didn't join the BERSIH 1.0 demonstrators who marched to the gates of the Istana Negara. The event was hijacked by Anwar Ibrahim who rode in on a big bike to the front line. At that time, I was told that BERSIH chose yellow to show its support for the King since 'the rakyat' was disenchanted with the government of the day.
The colour yellow must have stood for something other than the Monarchy when Ambiga Sreenivasan (former President of Bar Council) and A Samad Said (National Poet Laureate) led the emboldened protestors of BERSIH 2.0 towards Dataran Merdeka. Once again it was hijacked by Anwar Ibrahim, and Azmin Ali, who gave instructions to the mob to cross the barricades. What happened after was pandemonium.
Now, even the seemingly sane Harris Ibrahim with his People's Parliament in 2007 has mutated into Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (SABM), Asal Bukan UMNO (ABU), SKUAD ABU and TAHAN, a disgruntled citizen vigilante group deployed to stop voters suspected of being foreigners from exercising their rights.
And the latest 'voter education group' in town is TINDAK, which was alleged by Tunku Aziz of Transparency International (TI) to cause disruptions at the polling stations.
Well, I'm just glad that I pulled out of the farce before I was dragged into the abyss of lunacy.
Here are two links for first time voters who would like to know more about genuine electoral/voter education programs and the pitfalls of having citizen vigilante groups swarming the polling venues.
http://www.idea.int/europe_cis/armenia/workshop_civiced.cfm
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/the-danger-of-voter-fraud-vigilantes/
[I withdrew from the CTT pro-tem committee with another female member when we felt that the guys' mindset on gender roles was rather Jurassic. One of the founders later quit his job at a hi-tech corp to join Malaysiakini and mock the word 'Allah' by posting 'sightings' on strange surfaces such as beef patties on his FB wall. So much for non-partisanship and sensitivity to Muslims' feelings.]
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| Yellow for Monarchy or Mayhem? |
The colour yellow must have stood for something other than the Monarchy when Ambiga Sreenivasan (former President of Bar Council) and A Samad Said (National Poet Laureate) led the emboldened protestors of BERSIH 2.0 towards Dataran Merdeka. Once again it was hijacked by Anwar Ibrahim, and Azmin Ali, who gave instructions to the mob to cross the barricades. What happened after was pandemonium.
Now, even the seemingly sane Harris Ibrahim with his People's Parliament in 2007 has mutated into Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (SABM), Asal Bukan UMNO (ABU), SKUAD ABU and TAHAN, a disgruntled citizen vigilante group deployed to stop voters suspected of being foreigners from exercising their rights.
And the latest 'voter education group' in town is TINDAK, which was alleged by Tunku Aziz of Transparency International (TI) to cause disruptions at the polling stations.
Well, I'm just glad that I pulled out of the farce before I was dragged into the abyss of lunacy.
Here are two links for first time voters who would like to know more about genuine electoral/voter education programs and the pitfalls of having citizen vigilante groups swarming the polling venues.
http://www.idea.int/europe_cis/armenia/workshop_civiced.cfm
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/the-danger-of-voter-fraud-vigilantes/
3 comments:
well we have been doing fine all this while...
True, but some people can't rest easy til they get what they want.
Btul2 sy stuju sesgt...ini smua poyo!
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