This is how I vote.
While eating my mother's rendang today, I mentioned to her:
"Mak, Su bersyukur sangat dilahirkan kat Malaysia ni. Dapat makan rendang yang sangat best. Kot2 lahir kat Philippines ke kan tak merasa rendang Mak ni?"
And how my mother laughed at that. I meant more than just the rendang, and I am sure my mother got what I meant.
So the election is coming up real soon. In spite of puke-invoking manipulation of media by the ever-ruling party, all else is good. I love the election for the energy that it contains, and the colours that it brings to my kampung. Blue, white, green, red, although my eyes would be happier with more red actually. No, not inclined towards any party but I simply like red.
Seeing all this happening around me, it makes me smile. I love this country for all the good and not so good things that be its characters. I love the optimism that I have for the future of this country, even if you might disagree and accuse me of naïveté. Perhaps I am, but I like that part of me too.
In the radio, especially the government radios we hear commentaries and songs inviting people to exercise their rights/responsibility to vote. It is said that this country is seeing the growing numbers of young voters, who are educated and know what they want from the wakil rakyat. I dont know about the statistics, but I'd like to think that I am one of them. Yes, our vote shall remain a secret, but I insist to explore how will I vote to make it worth a million to the people that are affected by it.
I believe there are a lot of young voters like me out there, who are not particularly nor blindly pledging allegiance to a certain party. We're novice in this game, thus we tend to be observers rather than the talkers. But we are allergic to bullshits and are quite good to spot one if presented to us. So if you are a calon wakil rakyat thinking that you can use that basi lines on people like me, excuse me for I have to sneeze.
What I am looking for in the person that I will vote for is a good track record - if he/she had been wakil rakyat before, leadership qualities, ability to keep the majority of the people's confidence in him/her, and last but never least, good values.
Track record is simple, have I heard of his/her name before? Where and when has he or she been seen before in the territory that is supposed to diwakilkan? Sekali sekala during some perasmian? School sports day? Is that him riding the motorcycle saying hi to Pak Asrap? Someone important in the kampung died, is he or his wakil there giving condolences? That smelly paya polluted by bad sistem pembetungan, has it been fixed? Where is he? Where is she all these while? It is indeed simple. You just have to be there, or send someone to represent you. If you are not, you're not worth it.
Leadership qualities is also a very simple demand, if I may add. I humbly appreciate an intelligent person who knows the right things to say and do at the right time. Perfection is not what I am looking for. As a wakil rakyat, if you try hard enough, the rakyat can definitely see it, and we'll be glad.
I feel like values are always being undermined in a campaign. Calon wakil rakyat are too busy telling us voters what he/she can do for us even though we know that 50% of what is being said will end up as mere lip service. I want to know what you believe in, what is important to you? Are you a family man? Are you an ambitious businessman? What drives you? What motivates you? How do you work? It is affirmative that I want to get personal with my wakil rakyat, if you know what I mean, heh.
Men and women with tainted values will turn me off. Like seriously, I'm moving on with the next candidate as instantly as a Maggi mee. 2 mins? =) If recently you're being a smart ass and was caught khalwat with a woman and forced to marry that woman when you already have a wife at home, even more if your even smarter wife is filing for a divorce in court on the eve of the parliament disbandment, you're screwed. I know personal life has nothing to do with people's ability to excel in their job. But it gives me a feeling you're distracted, that you'll be spending a lot of time being an old, nasty, ulat bulu rather than doing your job so please, no heart feelings eh? And plus, as an experienced politician I had hoped that you would have learned from other people's mistakes, and clearly see how us Malaysians can hardly cope with malu. Don't make me malu to call you my representative. That's all there is to it.
I think it is really very hard to be a wakil rakyat. Literally, as a wakil you have to service the people. You are bound to sacrifice a lot of things. Although not many wakil rakyat understand the essence of their job, at least present yourself as a good candidate for people like me to vote. I'd hate for my intelligence to be insulted with foolish campaigns and even more foolish people. So gather up, and take on the challenge. Ada 1 minggu lagi beb..
To all new candidates, you might lack track records, but by all means if you confidently show your true potentials, you're on!
p/s: I'm gonna go and listen to all rapat umums involving the calon-calon yang bertanding at my place. I'll...be...watching!... (Robert de Niro to Ben Stiller style in Meet the Parents)
