Why I voted for the other side,
Well PM , First of all, as a minority in my country, I will
be frank and come straight out to say that I voted against your party. It was
not personal, nor did it have anything to do with ethnicity. It was nothing
against you personally but I was simply following my heart, the inner voice
within me was too loud to ignore. I would have liked to vote for your statement
of it being unnecessary for change but if I had done so, there will be endless
sleepless nights for me as my conscience will nag me throughout.
For it will mean giving support to a party who have so blatantly in full witness by me, consistently time and again challenged my sense of decency and propriety by commiting with impunity acts that no peace loving righteous society can condone. Yet your government in the past years hitherto , has given me the perception that IT does condone the acts that outraged and arouse our moral indignation without so much as a thought for the Rakyat’s sensibilities and worst try to cover up such acts with deception and denial of the truth, unsuccessfully, all in the name of political maneuvering to avoid accountability just because you are powerful enough to do so.
You must realise that there are those of us ordinary people who have better access to information and are more than adept in relying on our common sense to interpret what is accurate and perceive what are transparent attempts to deceive or obscure.
Don’t you see, many of us are also God loving and
God fearing in our respective faiths and
we are firm adherents of the believe
that we must uphold the values and principles of righteous living, or at
the very least strive to be decent human beings with standard values on moral
behaviour.
I and many others(God
Forbid) still can understand and probably put up with the shenanigans of money
politics, rhetoric spewing tactics for hearts and minds, even dirty offensive
tricks playing on emotions of the public as merely ploys that politicians use
to jostle for positions of power and entitlement they feel they deserve but
where is the line? Are there any moral boundaries?
Personally speaking, I allow my conscience to be my guide in terms of acceptable actions, and hence I am well aware of where the line I should not cross lies.
Personally speaking, I allow my conscience to be my guide in terms of acceptable actions, and hence I am well aware of where the line I should not cross lies.
We teach our kids, don’t lie, don’t cheat and HORRORS upon HORRORS , don’t kill, It is WRONG, more grievously so when innocent lives get sacrificed. We are held accountable for our misdeeds ,justice is blind, and for some in our community, they are answerable to GOD.
Yet in the political power game to dodge accountability, the very beacon in the establishment who are supposed to be upholding and protecting these values and tenets are the very ones who are seen to display, commiting the acts we fastidiously wish to impart on our next generation never to do. Something is wrong with this picture, or in this day and age “It does not compute”. Alarm bells in all those who have any sense of propriety will without doubt ring incessantly within, more louder for us who live , breathe and eke out our daily toil and existence in this beloved nation of Malaysia.
Why did I vote for
the other side?
Many reasons but none
of it has anything to do at all will my ethnic identity. You have labelled it as
an ethnic tsunami, I beg to differ.
It has more to do
with a tsunami of the collective and concerned conscience of a nation’s people ,
under siege . A common ground that transcends all barriers of race and
religion. Our humanity !
Now that the dust has settled.
As a citizen of this
nation, I have no qualm as to who governs now that the dust has cleared, and
your coalition has now narrowly won the mandate. Your other statement” it is time
for a reconciliation” does strike a note with me and I am sure many likeminded
people like me. We just want to move on now; we have voiced our protest at the
ballot. I will neither march nor protest in any “people’s initiative?” Not that
I dare not but I am too civil and my common sense speaks against it. Although
if I am outraged enough, I will do so at the drop of a dime.
Again, why did I vote
for the other side?
Well, I and millions of my fellow
countrymen voted for HOPE for this land of ours, it is merely that simple. You
do not have to be a rocket scientist or is it political scientist to sense
that. And although the opposition claims
the cry of UBAH as their campaign rallying call, but that very word penetrated
deep into resonating the hearts and psyche of ordinary better informed Malaysians yearning for a breathe of fresh air
in the foul stench of the political climate and how we are governed. And what
is seen is a manifestation of that collective consciousness of imprisoned
conscience expressed in the ballot.
UBAH means to me, a chance, no matter how slight, to usher in our hopes and aspirations for that which is acceptable and decent plus some of the other mumbo jumbo espoused by the other side, hoping that civility and mutual respect can be restored to a degree. Even the remotest chance of hoping for that to happen is enough to convince me to give it a go.
I am not a fool to believe in a complete
change of the flawed system and culture we have been governed under for so long.
But I am naïve enough to have the faith, and desperate HOPE that it can at
least if not eradicated but brought under control.
And that is mainly the reason why I voted for the other side, not because of their campaign promises and reasoning on economics, although I have to admit , many of their arguments made a lot of sense. But the main most important reason is that it will be like choosing the lesser of two evils and should they fail to perform, we can always kick them out as well. I hate this feeling of choice but can I help it when all I see and hear presently serves to strengthen the perception of the ruling elite and their extreme excesses.
We as Malaysians wish for the innate feelings of subtle oppression and suppression of our talents to dissipate. The obstacles in feeling fettered by shackles need to be smashed that our yearning to play our part in making this beloved nation great can be realized. Also I resent very much the feelings of resentment that have insidiously crept into the Rakyat’s psyche borne by the pathogens in the atmosphere of ethnic divisiveness perpetuated by agents with selfish agendas..
Please do take into heart the often used phrase “you can fool
some people some of the time but cannot fool all the people all the time.”
I sincerely hope that you have noticed where
the bulk of the sentiments of young Malaysians, educated and astute, lie. And
that they cross ethnic boundaries, attempts to drive a wedge with this
generation ,using whatever card , be it race or religion ,only serves to
reinforce their conviction of foul play. It is obscene and offensive to them as it is to me and likeminded sensible
Malaysians.
Another generation of Malaysians will be coming of age to
vote in a few years, and they will be much better informed with all the options
of alternative media that is available.
And they combined with the young bloods who have just voiced
their concerns at the ballot will comprise of the collective voices of
discerning Rakyat who cannot be easily mislead nor manipulated by propaganda
mongering tactics designed to inflame emotions more than to educate..
It is more likely
their choice will be influenced by their intellects guiding their conscience and not their
ignorance on the real state of affairs. Eventually there will be another
stronger combined force or tsunami wave in
selecting between perceived right and wrong.
Start over on a clean slate
Please heed my plea
to uphold or put into place a system that can guide you to the moral high
ground,I now begrudgingly look towards you as the one who has to steer our nation’s course, do not copy
Captain Smith’s navigational charts
knowing full well how tragic was that course for the Titanic.
The past is the past,
ever a pragmatic, I am more concerned with what is ahead, you may not be able
to wipe the slate clean but that doesn’t mean you cannot place the slate on the
side and write into a fresh one. Refer to it by all means and learn “What Not To
Do “ with the notations on the old slate or do the reverse.
I might not have
supported what your party stood for, but I have to acknowledge you as my
nation’s leader now, albeit begrudgingly. The onus is now on you to win over
the hearts and minds of those that your administration’s
past policies have effectively polarized , marginalized and held asunder for so
long.
Not only that but also to restore confidence and
pacify the feelings of perceived gross social injustice perpetrated upon those
you purport to champion. It is time to put a lid on the alleged excesses
or rein in the strays mucking up everything, it will not look good on
your C.V.
There may be hope yet if the government will
pursue an agenda of national reconciliation to unite one and all into the
pursuit of better standards of values and living for all, including the top
echeleons of society and those who preside.
And I along with many others across the ethnic divide , will
gladly give you approval if we sense that there are sincere and bold attempts
without fear or favor to make amends of past errors. Extricate yourselves from
the quagmire of past iniquities and system of doing things from the 20th
century.
If you still refuse to acknowledge and sense the profundity of the times, it will eventually be your own undoing. It will be a grave mistake to make attempts to halt the impetus of a people by underestimating the magnitude of the Rakyat’s disillusionment with the status quo.
As for many of us, it
will be business as usual, slogging through with the expensive cost of
subsisting in a cosmopolitan city, anxious and concerned on what is to come in
the very near future. Not only bread and butter issues but also social concerns
that may affect my personal sense of security for my family and close ones, and
the quality of live and pursuit of knowledge for our kids, not only
academically but also on values ,hoping that they have not been polluted yet by
what is already out there.
I am proud to be a
citizen of this nation, please make me proud of my Government!
Death of an innocent..TBH.
LEST WE FORGET! The family needs closure!