Cancelling Passports

English: Malaysia - regular international pass...
English: Malaysia – regular international passport (Pasport Antarabangsa Malaysia) ICAO Compliant Version (Feb 2010) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now that the elections are over, funny season is back, with more crazies than ever!

I read an article in TMI today, about Malaysians getting pissed with the Immigration DG for his threats to “revoke the passports of Malaysians abroad found to have taken part in anti-government activities”. I think that he should check with his boss, the Home Minister first.

You see, according to another article in TMI, our honourable “Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is denying Malaysians the right to a better voting system by telling them to migrate if they are unhappy with Malaysia’s first-past-the-post system.”

Now, those disgruntled Malaysians who have been taking part in anti-government activities would not be able to migrate out of the country if their passports are revoked now, would they?

In fact, the right thing for the Immigration DG to do would be to facilitate his new boss’ idea and to actually expedite the passport processing for these disgruntled Malaysians so that they can all go overseas and cause trouble overseas and get into trouble overseas, just like in Singapore.

Our nearest neighbour is rather worried that their citizens might start learning from us on how to do 198 Non-Violent Actions of civil protest. So, they are taking action against some of those caught by revoking their visas.

Wisma Putra should have a chat with Singapore to keep them disgruntled ones in Singapore, and to maybe convert some of them to Singaporean citizens!

This is just too funny to be true.

Toppling BN

English: Results of the Malaysian Dewan Rakyat...
English: Results of the Malaysian Dewan Rakyat based on the 2008 general election, showing parliamentary constituencies represented by equal-area hexagons with approximate geographic locations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to an article in FMT, there are parties that plan to forcibly overthrow the BN government this year possibly through street rallies.

Personally, I am against the idea of taking to the streets to overthrow a corrupt regime. My reason for this is that our situation isn’t yet dire enough to warrant such drastic action. Yes, there is a time and place for such coups but I do not think that our country is ready for it yet.

I have always eluded that things need to get worse before they can get better and that things are not yet bad enough in Malaysia. Yes, the bottom 40% of our people are struggling to survive, but they are still able to struggle. As a result, I do not think that the movement would be able to garner enough support and many people will probably get hurt in the process.

But the million dollar question that I need to answer is this: will I go to the streets in support of such a cause?

I will go to the streets to demand the mass resignation of the Elections Commission. They have screwed up so horribly that in more civil societies, they would have all committed ritual suicide to save their honour. But these people are bereft of honour and in so doing, dishonour the rakyat.

To those who keep harping that our EC did a good job – please stare at your left index finger. The botched up job that they did on the indelible ink already proves that they are either incompetent to play the role of an EC or that it was a willful and deliberate deed to mislead the Malaysian people.

To me, that alone is enough to demand their mass resignation.

However, that is about as far as I am willing to go on this. While I do know that representative democracy has failed us miserably this time around but I also understand that, “democracy is the worst form of government, except for everything else that has been tried.”

The system is rigged. But that does not mean that we abandon the system itself.

I think that we should take to the streets as and when there is a need for it. Malaysians are now primed for street rallies and mass demonstrations. Democracy is very much alive and kicking in Malaysia. More and more people are being awakened on our duties to ensure that the system works.

One occasion might be when the delimitation exercise is conducted, to demand that the drawing of boundaries be free and fair. In fact, the EC should involve the rakyat in the delimitation exercise. I am sure that there are enough mathematicians among us to help carve out fair electoral boundaries.

I feel that Malaysians in general still believe in the system, even if they are highly dejected with the outcome of GE13.

However, we do not have the stomach for violence… yet!

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Venting GE13 Anger

I read with incredulity what the IGP said in the papers today. Wasn’t he retiring this week? Or was that merely a rumour that I had mistakenly heard from someone else.

“The police have warned political party supporters not to engage in any further acts of provocation over the 13th general election (13GE) results to prevent an upheaval. Every day we delve on national security. Let me remind these quarters, we have plans of action on know what to do if things get out of hand.”

I think that what these people don’t get is that there is real frustration and anger on the ground. People need to vent. It would be better for the rakyat to vent out in stadiums than for them to take their anger onto the streets and the authorities, if things ever get to a boiling point.

Our government has to realise that there is a silent majority no longer; and that the majority are now a really noisy bunch, thanks to vuvuzelas. The government has to handle the situation tactfully so that things do not get out of hand.

For starters, I would encourage the IGP to stop making provocative statements like this, to challenge the will of the people. They should very well know that our people are pantang dicabar in so many ways. Just let people vent while you stock up on tear gas.

The political opposition plans to bring this rally nationwide and I actually applaud them for doing so. Instead of threatening these people will S.141 of the Penal Code on unlawful assemblies, the police should actually facilitate things, control traffic, etc.

It’s time to wake up to the new political reality, people!

“V: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

ATM Card Scam

Wow. Sure looks legit… not!

ATM CARD

Post-GE13 Fatigue

Damn.

It’s practically a week since GE13 and I’m still tired and exhausted. To be fair, I’ve not had much rest since last Sunday. I had to welcome two new interns on Tuesday and catch up with a pile of work at the office over the week. Then, this weekend I have both Company and Criminal Law classes on both days.

I’ll be spending half of the next five weeks in Penang. I’ve still got a boat-load of work to do and I hope that I’ll be able to get some of it done while in Penang. Then, it’s cruch time for Law as revision week and exam season comes in Jun-Sept. I’ve got a lot of studying to catch up on too.

My new product is also on a tight schedule. It’s supposed to be built over Q2-Q3 this year. I’m targeting a Q4 release. It’s been delayed so long that if I delay it any further, it’s just going to die a natural death. I’ve got a team of 8 to manage closely for this product.

I need a break but I don’t think that I’ll be getting one until the end of the year.

Sigh.

Post-GE13 Thoughts

https://i0.wp.com/fotowarung.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/034.jpg
It’s been three days after our 13th general elections (GE13).

While I do not claim to know what people think, I do know that Malaysians from all walks of life, across all racial groups, are coming together to express our distaste at how we have been denied the change that we sorely need and crave. The rakyat’s anger is very real and palpable. There are many people who know that they have been robbed of the government of their choice. Those who feel that GE13 was free of fraud, need only take a look at their left index finger.

For this alone the Elections Commission (EC) should resign en-bloc instead of saying that they will use a more long-lasting indelible ink for GE14. Honestly, I would not trust any of them with my poop, much less the sanctity and security of my vote. There are just so many voting irregularities reported across the nation. The one that stares everyone in the face is that of the less than indelible ink, which was supposed to stain for a week but was washable within minutes.

Once the world’s largest ethnically Chinese political party outside of China, the MCA is essentially a dead duck. It fared badly in GE13 with its top leaders scraping past their opponents with the narrowest of margins. The president chose to blame the Chinese for abandoning them instead of asking why. No amount of Viagra is going to help him rise up from this one. The knives are already out.

The fact that our dearest PM without a mandate, invented the term ‘Chinese Tsunami’ to blame the disastrous results on a particular racial group, would just quicken his political demise. Instead of being the leader of a nation divided, he chose to make irresponsible statements to stoke racial tensions. He continues to live in denial of the fact that it is impossible for a minority group to deny him a mandate.

His mentor – our ex-former PM Tun Dr Mahathir – blames pins the failings on both ‘ungrateful’ Chinese and ‘greedy’ Malays. At least he acknowledges that it takes more than just the Chinese minority, who only make up 25% of the population, to deny the BN the popular vote. But it’s not nice to label people as ungrateful and greedy just because they don’t like you.

As usual, in the discussion of national politics, the Indians and other ethnic minorities usually get left out. The MIC leader won with a razor thin margin of only merely 80 votes. I know that the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would not have been able to make inroads into Sabah and Sarawak without the support of the natives there. So, it would seem that the majority of Malaysians have abandoned the BN regardless of race.

But amongst all this hate, I am glad for one thing – GE13 recorded a voter turnout of 85%. My fellow Malaysians have shown that while we may be tidak apa about a lot of things, we do care enough about the future of our country that we are willing to come out to make ourselves heard at the ballot box and boy, did we make a loud noise last weekend.

This gives me hope.

Finally, I ask – what’s up in Lahad Datu? I hope that they have not been forgotten in this mad scramble for power. I wonder if the ‘bad guys’ have been caught or are they still running around in the jungles of Sabah wreaking havoc.

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GE13 Experience

By a stroke of luck, my schedule was totally clear for the two weeks between nomination and polling day for GE13. As my good friend was running, I decided to get involved directly and helped out where I could.

Nomination Day
I returned to KL the night before nomination day and went to the nomination centre in the wee hours of the morning. Little did I know that a lack of rest was going to be the norm for the next two weeks. I happily took photographs and revelled in the carnival atmosphere that is nomination day.

Work Starts
Work began almost immediately after. As I was a little late to volunteer to be part of the team, I just told them that I was up for any sort of grunt work. I wasn’t too picky but I did hope that they would not make me carry tables and chairs.

In the end, I ended up assisting in miscellaneous matters pertaining to Polling, Counting and Barung Agents (PACABA). It went from merely signing volunteers up, but quickly escalated to administrative work when they discovered I could work a spreadsheet. Later, after they discovered that I could work efficiently with a spreadsheet, I ended up doing the PACA scheduling for two whole DUNs.

I have to say that dealing with people has never been my strong point. And when dealing with the hundreds who had volunteered to be PACABA, I did not like the way things were going. We had to deal with all kinds of people from the most demanding to the most flexible.

Over the last week or so, I kept asking myself if people understood the meaning of the word – volunteer. As I understood it, when you volunteer, you volunteer. That was the way I had approached it. I hardly stepped into my office the last two weeks and I have a back-log of email to attend to.

When I did the scheduling for the PACABA, I tried my very best to cater to the various requests by the volunteers. The most ‘troublesome’ group was a group of eight young people. We called them the KKK group because of their surnames. They insisted on being grouped together due to transportation issues. I kept asking myself whether they drove a mini-bus or something capable of carrying so many people around.

All that said, I have to add that I was also mindful of the fact that we had volunteers who were willing to travel from as far as Shah Alam to go all the way to the other end of Selangor to volunteer. That was some serious dedication. So, I tried my best not to schedule these people for the morning slot.

Anyhow, I was quite surprised but I did manage to schedule most people into their desired groups, times and centres. It took me a whole afternoon and evening to do it but I managed to slot almost 300 people into their respective duties and stations.

Then, came the headache.

One of our PACAs got detained by the police and spent 7-hours in the station and was subsequently charged with an election offence a mere two days before polling day. While we did not anticipate this, we were quite glad that we picked the right person for the role.

People started dropping out. Some simply chickened out while others were dropped due to various issues such as missing tags, forms, etc. Thankfully, we had also kept a sizeable group of volunteers on reserve to be slotted in where gaps appeared. But by and large, the volunteers hunkered down and pressed on despite the challenge.

We also had to physically sort out the various photos, tags and forms of every person. We had volunteers to help out as well and I set up a system to get it all done within half a day. Again, we were blessed because none bar one of our primary volunteers had issues with their tags.

Polling Day
Finally, polling day arrived and my work was about to get a lot more interesting. As I was quite familiar with the overall PACA operations, I was assigned to be one of the monitors travelling around the different centres to check on things. I visited several schools on my own and helped spot a few problems.

Most of the day went without much incident. There were a few minor issues and hiccups but things mostly proceeded smoothly. But Murphy’s Law being what it is, we had to rush over to a remote school to fire-fight at the eleventh hour – just as the gates closed. Thankfully, it was nothing major either even though it it reach the ears of our candidate.

After that, it was off to the operations centre to wait for the results. My role at this point became administrative again. I would key in the results as we received them. There were people posted at various centres and we worked together to provide our candidate with updated numbers.

The atmosphere at the operations centre was ecstatic. They opened it up to the public and broad-casted results as they came in throughout the country. People were cheering and shouting while enjoying all the roast pork, satay, and other great food provided.

Things took quite a while and we only received our last numbers at 11.30pm as this centre had several recounts where the margin was only 2 votes, which would trigger an automatic recount under the Law. After keying those in, it was off to the tally centre.

At the tally centre, the atmosphere was decidedly different. There was crowd control by the police and people were not allowed in easily. Thankfully we had our tags and I snuck into the the tally centre to witness the process, which turned out to be nothing but sitting around waiting for SPR to key in their results, that took hours.

Finally, at 2.30am, the results were announced and our candidate marched to a resounding victory with a winning margin of over 42k votes.

Job finished!

Final Thoughts
There were many nights, where everyone was short of sleep. I was not spared either – working till 6am at one point and sleeping for a mere 4-hours became the norm. It was all worth it in the end. Our candidate won and I had an experience of a lifetime!

Through this work, I made new friends and possibly a couple of enemies. Experiences like this one do tend to bond or break people. I know fairly well that there are some people that I cannot deal with while there are others whom I would cherish as friends.

Was it worth it? Hell, yeah!

Would I do it again? I honestly don’t know.

PS: I’m keeping some souvenirs from this campaign as a momento. It was a lot of hard-work, damnit!