My cross that cost SGD424
How can you identify a Malaysian on 5th of May 2013? The answer is simple, all Malaysians are manicured on this day with a finger nail painted in blue. It is a day which many of us are proud to be part of this country. It is the day when we execute our duty to vote for a new Government.
It is not the first time I have voted, in fact I have voted twice before, so what's the difference? The last 2 times I went to cast my ballot, it was over in a jeepy. There were few people when we reached the balloting station, short queue and in less than 10 minutes I was inside marking the cross to the party of my choice.
It is very different this time round. My family were there at 8:00AM on the dot when the balloting station opened. There was already a long queue of 300m formed outside the station (which happened to be the school)! It is people everywhere inside the balloting station. I have never seen such enthusiasm in people to cast their votes in the past!
What used to be a 10 minutes routine turned out to be a 40 minutes queue for me, my brother who queued at the young people section took even longer of 1 1/2 hour, my mother close to 2 hours. And guess what, the people keeps coming. As my understanding goes, more than 60% of Malaysian voted by noon time.
I was in the queue to my voting room which they called Saluran. There was this guy in the same queue behind me and to kill some time, we started chatting about this election. Turned out he works in Singapore just like I did. In fact he was dellusional about the political situation in Malaysia, that was until the last election when surprise, surprise BN failed to maintain a 2/3 majority! This made him realised that his 1 single vote matter. He immediately registered as a voter and came back to do his duty as a citizen.
Doing our duty as citizen, this is a big word which we normally do not use. It is not until the last election that made us realise that it is important we take election seriously. In fact the 2 of us are not alone in this. How many Malaysians are dellusioned about saving our country from further deterioration? How many of us decided to leave this country because of the racial injustice and unequal rights base on the BN's policies? There are loads who have been staying oversea all these while.
Yet it is interesting that many of us still decided to retain our citizenship, no matter how much better life is at foreign land. It is never our home. Or may be among the dellusions, there is still a glimpse of hope that one day Malaysia will break free from the governance of the evil minded people with only interest to fatten themselves.
Because of the previous election, Malaysian flock back to the country in droves to cast their vote this time round. I have heard people driving back from Singapore to Kedah, which is more than 700KM apart and a total of 10 hours dirve. There is an increase in highway traffic by 30%, flights and public transport are fully booked for the matter. There was even a 3 hours jam at the second link between Singapore and Malaysia!
The urge to execute our duty is so great that even when I left Singapore, the custom officer actually said to me, "Happy voting". The number is so great that they notice the difference. On my way back, 1/2 the plane are filled with people having a blue finger. My brother on the other hand shared a bus load of people who made this trip just to vote.
Whether we succeed in making Malaysia a better place, it does not matter. What matter is that the future of Malaysia is in our hand and we have done our part. This will be a day we will remember ourselves in years to come. Will there be a new and different government? God knows. But at least I am now proud of being a Malaysian, because we have decided to decide our own fate.
It is not the first time I have voted, in fact I have voted twice before, so what's the difference? The last 2 times I went to cast my ballot, it was over in a jeepy. There were few people when we reached the balloting station, short queue and in less than 10 minutes I was inside marking the cross to the party of my choice.
It is very different this time round. My family were there at 8:00AM on the dot when the balloting station opened. There was already a long queue of 300m formed outside the station (which happened to be the school)! It is people everywhere inside the balloting station. I have never seen such enthusiasm in people to cast their votes in the past!
What used to be a 10 minutes routine turned out to be a 40 minutes queue for me, my brother who queued at the young people section took even longer of 1 1/2 hour, my mother close to 2 hours. And guess what, the people keeps coming. As my understanding goes, more than 60% of Malaysian voted by noon time.
I was in the queue to my voting room which they called Saluran. There was this guy in the same queue behind me and to kill some time, we started chatting about this election. Turned out he works in Singapore just like I did. In fact he was dellusional about the political situation in Malaysia, that was until the last election when surprise, surprise BN failed to maintain a 2/3 majority! This made him realised that his 1 single vote matter. He immediately registered as a voter and came back to do his duty as a citizen.
Doing our duty as citizen, this is a big word which we normally do not use. It is not until the last election that made us realise that it is important we take election seriously. In fact the 2 of us are not alone in this. How many Malaysians are dellusioned about saving our country from further deterioration? How many of us decided to leave this country because of the racial injustice and unequal rights base on the BN's policies? There are loads who have been staying oversea all these while.
Yet it is interesting that many of us still decided to retain our citizenship, no matter how much better life is at foreign land. It is never our home. Or may be among the dellusions, there is still a glimpse of hope that one day Malaysia will break free from the governance of the evil minded people with only interest to fatten themselves.
Because of the previous election, Malaysian flock back to the country in droves to cast their vote this time round. I have heard people driving back from Singapore to Kedah, which is more than 700KM apart and a total of 10 hours dirve. There is an increase in highway traffic by 30%, flights and public transport are fully booked for the matter. There was even a 3 hours jam at the second link between Singapore and Malaysia!
The urge to execute our duty is so great that even when I left Singapore, the custom officer actually said to me, "Happy voting". The number is so great that they notice the difference. On my way back, 1/2 the plane are filled with people having a blue finger. My brother on the other hand shared a bus load of people who made this trip just to vote.
Whether we succeed in making Malaysia a better place, it does not matter. What matter is that the future of Malaysia is in our hand and we have done our part. This will be a day we will remember ourselves in years to come. Will there be a new and different government? God knows. But at least I am now proud of being a Malaysian, because we have decided to decide our own fate.
posted by denzuko1 at 10:49 PM
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