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. 

Ridding Garbage (aka House Cleaning)

Cleaning up in the process of moving house is perhaps one of the most difficult jobs there is for anyone to take on.

You just don’t realized how much stuff (and junk) you have accumulated throughout the years until it’s spring cleaning or moving out time.

We are moving to our new house end of this year (hopefully!) and I am bracing myself for the horrid task of deciding what to keep and what to discard.

Sometimes, the best thing is to just chuck out everything that is STRICTLY not necessary for your new home and start fresh.

What is so clear for the head is however less so for the heart.

Often times, there are things that you just can’t find it in your heart to throw out, and as such store it somewhere nice and quiet.

The headache is even bigger if you are cleaning up another person’s home; let say, a second hand house on as-is basis through an auction, for example.

I bet there’re makeshift attics even in our non-attic typical homes which second as store and forget storage space.

My wife’s house in Ipoh has one above the second bathroom located in the rear and it’s a place I don’t wish to go poking about.

However, if you are the brave (curious?) type who do bother to dig deep, you may just find some gems – old portraits, memorabilia of one kind or another, records, books and magazines; basically stuffs that its owners are keen to hold on to but at the same time, unable to do so.

Usually it would be a case of finders keepers, but common sense says personal items (especially those with familial links) should be returned if possible.

What you hope – nay, pray – for is that you don’t end up making discoveries like those chaps in Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift (1970), though, but most of the time there will be the odd nasty finds.

(Which is also ONE reason why I’m only peeking at what’s within the aforementioned shelf aka makeshift attic cum storage space of our house in Ipoh!)

This is especially if the house owner or tenant before you is one behaviorally-challenged (aka nasty) person, someone like the unnamed narrator in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic, Tell-Tale Heart (1843).

News reports of late seemed to suggest the same kind of headaches being faced by our leaders: municipal, city, state and Federal level, mainly from the tumultuous March 2008 general elections results.

For example, the Sun reported today the KL Mayor cancelling a three-year contract worth RM32.4 million to supply flowers.

Among other, the report said: “the current Mayor is unable to focus on the job at hand as he tries to clean up the mess left behind by previous administrations – both at DBKL and the Federal Territories Ministry levels.”

A whole lot of mess is out in the open these days: the PKFZ scandal, Penang’s Kampung Buah Pala, the alleged exorbitant practices of a former minister, the Lingam tapes, the “RAPID”ly rotting buses in Rawang, and many, many more.

Major headaches for anyone tasked with cleaning up all these mess left behind.

Can’t we just chuck everything out like the junk that they are?

Of course, the rats that infest the garbage should go too.

If they have become as big as those in the Graveyard shift, then it’s time to call in the exterminator. (ex-Terminator?)

You don’t keep rats. Rats carry diseases. Fatal ones.

Hmm, who would you call?