Fascist Book of Tricks

"It is an old strategy in the fascist book of tricks: to dehumanize the other, to relegate and reduce their individuality into racial labels and to render their hopes, fears and vulnerabilities invisible; in other words, to oppress. What is worse, passages from the holy Quran are evoked in the process for justification."

Ouch… Unless you have a supremely thick hide, to be called a fascist must surely hurt somewhere.

The only fascist I know in my ever so limited knowledge is Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), him who was a leader of one of the three Axis Alliance of World War II.

For an in-depth read on what exactly is fascism, look it up in Wikipedia here. One thing’s for sure, it is not pretty to be called one.

Anyway, the above is a direct copy pasting of a statement by the Islamic Renaissance Front titled: “Lessons from the demonization of DAP”.

This is in the back of two front pages by DAP’s perennial fourth estate foe, Utusan Malaysia, of so-called religious, urm, statement that it is haram (not kosher?) to vote for DAP and any other political parties who are “sekongkol”ing with them as they (DAP, that is) is a kafir harbi kind of party.

As I don’t read Utusan, I neither know head nor tale of the detail story, but even the headline is somewhat silly vis a vis the soon-but-not-that soon to be held 13^th General Election. 

Say, just say for brevity's sake that you do take the issue seriously.

Okay; noted then. No crossing the boxes of DAP candidates, even if they are Malays or Muslims.

No crossing boxes of “sekongkol”ing political parties either; so scratch PSM, PKR and PAS candidates.

Which leaves fellow non partisan Malaysian Muslims with pretty much only the independents IF they wish to NOT vote for the candidates of UMNO and “sekongkol”ing MCA-MIC and the likes.

 

You know, there is such a thing as Syubhah (looks like haram but not quite, so better to keep at arm’s length).

Then again, independents these days are either BN or PR friendly, so you’re stuck there to.

I give up: do you even get to exercise this once every five year basic right then?

Seriously, Utusan Malaysia has played the racial card and now is playing the religious card against DAP with nary a slap on the wrist.

To what ends are the editors looking at with such incendiary headlines?

Let’s face it: as it is, many have made up their made their mind whose butt they want kicked come vote counting time, and stoking such racial and religious lines just jack up the adrenaline levels of only hard core followers.

I seriously doubt it will sway the so called fence sitters with minds of their own.

Scoring Points and Keeping Tabs

Apparently the government has been keeping tabs on the things it’s done to and for the Rakyat at large.

Not just of late but as soon as the country hoisted its own Jalur Gemilang to replace the Union Jack some 55 years ago.

Hence, this statement by Info Minister Rais Yatim: “…The government has already decided to continue using the theme 'Janji Ditepati' (Promises Fulfilled) for the 55th Merdeka celebrations despite the criticisms, because since 1957 we have fulfilled almost 95% of what we have committed to achieve for the people.”

Hear that: 95%! Definitely a high score.

And here we thought that the politicians forming the executives of this country had been slogging throughout, you know, out of pure love for the country.

Keeping count is like having a black book of tabs to call in should there be a need to do so in the future.

So much for ikhlas-ness, eh?

BUT just how in heaven’s name do you compute on fulfilling commitments for the people?

The qualitative stuff such as roadworks, rails, ports, airports, buildings etc is QED though still argumentative, but what about the more subjective ones such as wellbeing (as opposed to pure monetary computation), nation building, solidarity, (ahem) patriotism etc.

How does someone derive the “95% Janji (telah) Di Tepati” scoreline?

Is there a national accounting book lying somewhere on commitments promised and things done to achieve the said commitments and targets?

What are the KPIs ? Did KPIs and the rest of the acronyms so synonymous with the current government existed back when Malaysia was still Tanah Melayu?

Does it extend to Sabah and Sarawak (and Singapore, too, for a short while) when they joined the Peninsular to become Malaysia in 1963?

Who is the bookkeeper of this “Commitments to the Rakyat and What’s Achieved to Date” register? Is there an audit to see who and what is slacking so that knuckles can be rapped?

Perhaps the Minister did not mean to let the cat out of the bag of this so-called national count keeping thingy: maybe it is supposed to be a hush, hush, super confidential, super secretive, PM's (and close allies) eyes and ears only, item.

Something like the Book of Secrets “discovered” by Nicholas “Benjamin Gates” Cage of the National Treasure franchise.

Now, THAT would be cool.

Democratic Fervor

In Malaysia, voting during the General Elections is NOT something that is mandatory. Hence as an extension of this then it makes sense that automatic registration of voters is also not ON.

Shouldn’t it though?

It is one thing to be registered, and another to actually vote. For one, you have to be - theoretically, at least, what’s with allegations of Hantu voters popping up every time the election comes – physically present to do the latter.

Apparently, there is an estimated 3.6 million people who are still unregistered as voters.

Huge concern thus. HUGE.

Thus, looking at the response so far from the Barisan Nasional, urm, fellas (EC deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar, excluded, of course) to the Selangor State government’s “SelangorkuBersih” campaign, you’d be forgiven to scratch your head and go: Huh?

The campaign aims to verify the voters listed and, can along the way help to persuade those who haven't registered to do so.

After all, why wouldn’t the Selangor State Government want to help out in registering the still unregistered 600k or so other Selangorians?

If these 600K non registered ones want to, that is.

Since neither voting nor registering as a voter is mandatory, it is really their choice, no?

But if they do wish to do so; and just don’t have neither the opportunity nor the means or the time to put pen to registration papers, then the “Selangorku Bersih” campaign is just plain haven sent.

 As Selangor has the highest number of unregistered voters, surely the EC will relish all the help it can get, shouldn’t it?

Saves the EC to concentrate its efforts on the other 3 million unregistered ones.

Out of curiosity, how does the EC verify the voters’ particulars and voting constituencies?

Take me, for instance.

I registered God knows how long ago as a voter in the Pandan Parliamentary constituency and except for the 2004 General Election, I have not had the opportunity to vote due to work and locality constraints.

Was I ever, urm, verified throughout the three General Elections including those in 1999 and 2008?

Until but recently when I changed my voting particulars, I was still very much a voter in Pandan.

It does seem that the verification of a voter's particulars is very much up to the individual voter’s own efforts, with the EC, urm, facilitating the data entry.

So, how would the EC verify something like this highlighted instance in suspicion arousing duplicating facts?

After all, outside of the particular locality's locals, how will one know who’s who? Asking for someone’s identity papers is just plain criminal for anyone other than  the authorities.

It could well be a sheer stroke of pure coincidence of which the door to door, house to house, “Selangorku Bersih” campaign could help prove and, without a doubt, VERIFY.

Or not, since the voters – any voter for that matter - could also say: “No, I will not allow myself to be verified”.

Something which the “SelangorkuBersih” campaign detractors seem to be pushing for.

Or not. Perhaps it’s nothing more than the fervor of DEMOCRATIC IDEALS.

Yep. That’s probably IT. 

Clearly Loud

Electoral Fairness and Impartiality.

One Person One Vote.

Or is a proportional system the answer?

Any which, surely they can hear the LOUD voice for changes.

But listening?

Populist Posturing

Be it June or September, there is already too much politically charged posturing from both camps of PR and BN that borders on the insane.

It is thus unfortunate that we are so chronically divided on party lines politically that you can’t get the best, a core group of administrator to govern and do what’s best for the country and its population.

And much as I loathe the excesses of the current (and past) BN government, there are still good people within a quietly rotting bunch.

Selangor’s Ronnie Liu is correct when he told the State Assembly: "It's irrelevant whether they have an Umno background or not. What is important is whether they are capable of doing their jobs."

That is exactly the way it should always be.

The system became rotten when those holding the purse began to act as brokers; earning commissions and thus leading to those seeking the contracts to inflate their tender prices to cater for such payments.

Let's call these “administrative costs”, why don't we?

Worse is that these commission earning acts aka duit kopi (shame on you!) is seemingly perpetuated by the lowest echelon right up to the highest levels.

Sidetrack: A colleague told me of her civil servant relative saying that if she does not (take), there will be others who will.

What a shitload of an excuse.

Once you accept such illicit acts as something that “everyone does”, then it becomes entrenched as nobody will be looking to rock the boat.

And that is exactly why the country is now deepshit in debt when every darn public procurement and contract is inflated by so and so percentage to cater for this group of leeches.

Parasites.

It is good to hear some PR leaders acknowledging that the ability to perform basically overrides political affiliations as this attitude can help close the political rift threatening to rend this country asunder.

Imagine if you will what would happen if this rift continues to broaden through divisive statements from both sides.

The whole country could be stuck in stalemate situations where by the losers are not gracious.

We saw that happening in Perak which was in limbo for a long while as BN just could not accept being the losing side.

If only we can be like Senegal, eh?