Jeff Ooi within reach of fund-raising target

When I first heard of Jeff Ooi’s goal to raise RM100k through Internet donations, I was skeptical. DAP candidates, in general, usually raise funds through dinner functions (i.e. the way Hillary Clinton does). I didn’t think Malaysia was ready for Howard Dean/Barack Obama style fund-raising.I was wrong: 

Anyway, but the time the Crazy Man II’s cheque is cleared, I would have achieved RM95,000.00, or 95.5% of my original target of getting RM100k from Screenshots readers.  

To be precise, that RM95k figure includes at least RM10k that was paid in-person while Jeff was on the ground. Nevertheless, grassroots and Internet fund-raising is clearly happening in Malaysia, which bodes well for her state of democracy.

And no, Jeff isn’t channeling all the cash into a mammoth machinery to call his own. He is sharing it out:

I have started to re-donate some of the money I collected to fellow candidates who need fund — so that more Rockets could be launched into the Parliament and the Penang State Assembly — and I think I should save some to set up a service centre in Jelutong, win or lose.   

Malaysian students in Australia… you have less than 24 hours.

When I wrote this letter to Malaysiakini, I said:

If the parties do eventually get their act together, there will be very little time to waste – all Malaysian students who wish to vote will have to move very quickly because postal ballotting must be completed before election day.  

When I said you would have to move quickly, I didn’t realise just how quickly…

You have less than 24 hours to register for an absentee ballot.

Malaysian students in Melbourne, get in touch with Malaysia Hall tomorrow (27 Feb), not a day later. Don’t email them, call them: (04 3343 7263 / 03 9529 4507). The address is:
Malaysia Hall Melbourne
K4, High Street, Windsor VIC 3181
Somewhere near here.

Students in other cities around Australia, get in touch with the High Commission in Canberra, call (02) 6273 1543/1545/1546, ask to speak with Alan (if he’s not in, speak to the receptionist and explain you want information on postal voting) to get information on how you can proceed.Please help forward this information.

Polling agents still needed across the board

The single most useful thing anyone can do in this elections is to volunteer for polling agent and counting agent duty. What’s the use of of fighting for votes if in the end there is cheating and mis-counting? I can confirm with you 100% that mis-counting does happen, I caught it myself. When I volunteered in the last election, the very first thing they asked me to do was not to make posters, not to go on walkabouts, but to become a polling and counting agent. Many (if not all) campaigns still need agents, e.g.:

• PKR Bukit Lanjan – Elizabeth Wong
• DAP Ipoh Timur – Lim Kit Siang
• DAP PJ (Tony Pua, Edward Lee, Dr. Cheah, Lau Weng San) is conducting polling agent recruiting and training this week on Thursday and Saturday (8.30pm) in English, Saturday (3pm) in Chinese. Call/SMS Medaline Chang at 012 219 2010

… and I’m sure many others as well. Don’t be shy, just approach any campaign (they should be highly visible) in your area, or even outside your area if you prefer to help some party that’s not contesting in your constituency. Alternatively, the way I got involved with the DAP was by volunteering through the central website (I was “assigned” to Seputeh through there, based on my address).

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s cowardice results in a Malaysian middle-age man being beaten up

I put the blame for this squarely on the Prime Minister’s shoulders. Last year there were two hotly contested by-elections; one in Machap, and one in Ijok. In Machap there was a violent confrontation which many witnesses claim was instigated by MIC Youth. DAP also got into the fight, but claimed it was in self-defense, and that looks like the case since on the DAP’s side the “fighters” included ladies. Shortly after that there was the Ijok by-election, where the tone of the campaign was very tense, e.g. with water bottles being thrown. I vaguely recall a photographer was hit in the face from close range as well (was it Jeff Ooi?).

Was election date “known” by October 2007?

A few days ago, I spoke to someone at the Australian High Commission in Canberra, about absentee voting, and it turns out we were too late to register for postal voting. At the time, the high comm couldn’t tell me when the actual deadline was, but I had guessed that it was Feb 5th, the day the rolls were last gazetted. However, now I have received a written response from the high commission, and the news is a bit perplexing.

Opposition gains most from longer campaign period

I just read the op-ed “Who gains most from longer campaign period?” where the author (Ong Kian Ming) argues the case that the longer campaign period will result in a larger number of received postal ballots that would favour the government. That’s quite possibly true. However, I still think the opposition has the bigger advantage overall.

Come on la, take care of your websites

In election season, a lot of websites are going to come under very high pressure. It is the responsibility of the site administrators to take measures to ensure the availability of their sites during this period, e.g. by purchasing additional bandwidth allocation from their hosting services. Now, just a day before nomination, dapmalaysia.org has fallen off the edge due to exceding their allocated bandwidth quota:

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.

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Apache/1.3.39 Server at www.dapmalaysia.org Port 80 

While this is a kind of validation that their message is exciting and drawing people in, it is so disappointing that they did not ensure the reliability of their web presence. Let this be a warning to other sites as well – prepare for the onslaught of hits, because they are surely coming. 

Opposition should announce Penang EXCO mid-way through campaign

BN Penang is facing the prospect of going into nomination day with no known leader. Of course, there may already be a hand-picked successor known behind closed doors, but that doesn’t do anything for the morale of Gerakan’s campaigners. Which Gerakan leader will be the Penang Chief Minister? Will the CM even be from Gerakan at all?

DAP’s Kinta Kampaign back on track

According to Malaysiakini and Lim Kit Siang’s blog, Fong Po Kuan has changed her mind. She will defend Batu Gajah.

All fathers of young daughters out there take note… it seems Lim Guan Eng is one hell of a sweet-talker, so be careful when he is around. :)

Student absentee voting in Australia

After some back-and-forth, we have finally obtained some closure with the Australian High Commission in Canberra on the issue of absentee balloting.