After over a year of speculation on snap polls, Parliament has been dissolved. The timing is, as expected, just prior to Anwar Ibrahim’s eligibility to contest, thanks to a his conviction for corruption, which the courts upheld on dubious grounds.
While I do not dispute that the prospect of Anwar Ibrahim on a ballot certainly factored into Badawi’s calculations, I think it’s at least equally important to note that elections will be held shortly after Chinese New Year, when many young Chinese Malaysian voters would have just returned home and would now be back at work in Singapore or KL or some other major city. These folks are most likely to be registered to vote in their hometowns, and due to financial and work pressures many would not be able to go home again so soon after just going back for Chinese New Year. In the last election – in the Seputeh constituency at least – the Borang 13 (record of polling results from each stream) that the counting agents collected indicated that younger voters favored the opposition. If anything, this trend would be even more prevalent this time.
Many businesses and employers would have only just handed out lots of extra leave time to young Chinese Malaysians (and other young Malaysians of other races as well) looking for some extra family time. I hope these employers will see the bigger picture and approve leave (at least unpaid) to help young Malaysians make their voices heard on Election Day. Afterall, the fate of their businesses is linked to the fate of the country, and the future of the country rests on the voice of democracy being heard loud, rather than being denied. So let’s take a small hit in productivity now for greater gains down the line.
It’s still unknown when exactly Election Day will be, but speculation is for March 1st. Those of you who can spare some time should become involved in campaigns of your choice – PKR, DAP, PAS, or even BN if you really believe in the candidate standing. I have some info on how to get involved with some DAP campaigns. (And by the way, you don’t have to be a DAP member to volunteer to help a DAP campaign, and even after that you won’t be pressured to become a member… it’s up to you…)
In the last election I was involved with the Seputeh campaign, for Teresa Kok. I was a polling agent, counting agent, did a little bit of “walkabout” campaining, and a lot of “stapling flags to long lengths of string”. She has made a call for help, looking for manpower as well as cash. Some people have the impression that Teresa doesn’t really need help, that she is an unstoppable force… it’s certainly true that she has done well, but she still needs help for a couple of reasons:
- BN WP seems especially agitated this time, there seems to be some pressure on them to deliver a result (maybe because they expect heavy losses in Penang), and it’s hard to say what they have in mind. It’s essential that the party have enough polling and counting agents as well as people on the ground to keep an eye on things on election day, to catch any attempted cheating by the BN.
- Teresa is also contesting in a Selangor state seat, which will be much harder to capture and requires a lot more campaigning effort. She is going for this state seat in addition to her MP seat not to be greedy, but because the DAP party has instructed her to do so… someone has to be there to keep Khir Toyo in check, and few can do so with as much backbone as Teresa.
It’s worth noting that last year DAP Seputeh had to get a new (bigger) office space because the old one was simply too small to serve the needs of the constituents, and I’m sure the financial effects of that are still being felt, so cash donations would go a long way. Seputeh is a predominantly Chinese area, and the campaign tends to be heavily Chinese, however I managed to fit in rather comfortably inspite of speaking absolutely no Mandarin or Cantonese, so I’m sure anyone can do it :) Also, inspite of being formidable and unyielding in the political sphere, Teresa is actually quite nice and funny and fun to be around :)
The other campaign of special interest to me is PJ Utara, where Tony Pua will be attempting to wrest the seat away from the BN candidate, who recently stooped so low as to resort to “remember may 13″ fear-mongering to frighten people into supporting her party. Tony has also made a call for help. In addition to Tony’s contest for an MP seat, there are other campaigns for state seats in the area as well, so there is a lot of opportunity to break new ground here. The campaign in PJ Utara will tend to be more English-oriented.
Although this will be Tony’s first electoral contest, the campaign will not be inexperienced; on the contrary, the DAP PJ Action Team is one of the most active and best organised, and comprises a mix of “old-school” grassroots oriented campaigning and “new-school” cyber-campaining. To get in touch with this campaign, either visit Tony’s blog and get the contact info there, or there is another approach to take…
DAP Damansara has started coordinating a formal training program for polling and counting agents, to be better prepared for the election. These training sessions run on weekends, are free to attend, and very often there is free food! Also, undergoing the training does not commit you to becoming an agent. You can even receive the training then go off and campaign for some other candidate of some other party if you wish. The time and venue of the training sessions tends to change; if you are interested send an email to pollingagent@gmail.com with your name and phone number.
Of course there are many more campaigns that are worthy of participation, both in DAP and in other parties, but these are the only two campaigns with which I have ever been personally associated with to some minimal extent.
… and so where will I be? I’ll be stuck in Melbourne, missing out on all the excitement :( I will see what little I can do from cyberspace…
All the best everyone! Let’s hope for a good result for Malaysia… but instead of just hoping for it, let’s work our butts off for just a few weeks, to make it actually happen! :)
p/s-yes, I know I said this blog was closed… bah humbug… sue me :P
