Time to be nice to the voters

0

PEOPLE’S CHOICE: Voters can expect to be pampered when the candidates vying for political office are most vulnerable.

NOW that parliament has been dissolved, nominations of candidates will follow before elections are to be held … definitely this year. No more anxious waiting; no more fear of another Emergency.

The government is a caretaker government without power to pass laws, especially laws relating to the use of public money.

All potential candidates vying for office are ready for the gruelling campaign, for what some political analysts call the mother of all Malaysian elections – predicting close results and possibly a hung parliament. A possible coalition government between BN and PKR? Just a figment of my imagination; ignore it.

Campaigning for the control of Putrajaya has been going on as far back as the last general election in 2008. The present campaign is, perhaps, more intense and getting dirtier by the day. Politics as such is not dirty if it means an art of governance of a state. It is made dirty by politicians.

The voters have seen the antics of the politicians to outdo each other and are happy that the elections will be over by May.

It’s time for the voters to decide whether or not the politicians, when elected or re-elected, are good enough to deliver the goods for the next five years.

Make hay while the sun shines

It’s also time for the voters to tarik harga (play hard to get). You can now expect to be pampered when the candidates vying for political office are most vulnerable – they are obliging, friendly and compliant.

They may promise you anything; that’s because it is their business to make promises. Keeping one or two of them is possible but almost impossible for the MP to keep all within the tenure of his office, certainly not in a single-term anyway. Perhaps, we give them more time; perhaps we should send signals that their time is up and new guys should replace them. The right to do this is in your power exercised in the interest of your country and of your own self.

You may be called by a friend of yours to canvass for votes for him, he, promising never to forget about your help when he comes to power. However, if and when he becomes an Honourable Member of Parliament, he will lead a different style of life – a level above the ordinary mortals. Every time you meet him, his service centre will be overcrowded with his supporters asking for help of one kind or another.

He will not have much time with you for a long chat as in the past, not even for a laksa or kolo mee at a downtown coffee shop. However, he will see more of you if you join the golf club of which he is a member. There on the greens you will have ample time to talk about business opportunities – he would be able to put in a good word about you if you would apply for a piece of land for a plantation or a forest concession from the higher authority in the state.

You see, both must make money before the next election in four or five years’ time.

If he becomes a minister, he will be installed in KL. You’ll have to make an appointment before you can see him in his office. Call his personal secretary and she will ask you to state the purpose of your visit. On the day of appointment itself, surrender your identity card (IC) at the counter of the ministry (they don’t trust you being inside that building). You will be given a dog tag with the word  ‘Pelawat’ (Visitor). Hang it on your neck all the time while you are inside the minister’s room and give it back to the counter as a ransom for the return of your document.

You are in a hurry to catch the flight to Kuching or Sibu or Miri but don’t expect him to drive you to the airport in his official car like he used to do in his Proton Saga while in Borneo before he became a minister in the federal government.

Good friends you might have been before the polls, but now, the relationship has drastically changed to one between a minister and a rakyat. But you will become friends again in about five years hence. That’s when he requires a vote from you and those of other members of your family to accomplish his mission to serve the rakyat. That’s what friends are good for.

For now, the old friends will no longer address each other by first names. The new title ‘YB’ will have to precede his first name; yours remains the same as it appears in your IC. If he is a minister, he is to be addressed by his proper title. That’s the protocol.

Question time for potential YBs

While they are still with us in Borneo, we must ask them questions as to what they can do to solve certain problems, especially those which should have been solved but remain unsolved to this day.

While parliament is sitting, the backbenchers normally ask questions for oral answers by the ministers. However, those of us who cannot afford the trip to KL should ask questions of every candidate before they are elected or re-elected. Campaign time is the best time to ask questions of the candidates.

I have a couple of queries of all the candidates standing in the constituency of Santubong. I’m an elector in that area – that’s my locus standi. Here goes:

Why is it that there are no peneroka (settlers) in the Felda plantations in the state constituency of Tanjong Datu?

Why is it that there has been no news about the outcome of the investigation by the Forest Department into the alleged illegal felling of the timber from the area claimed by the villagers of Stunggang as their pemakai menoa which, according to reliable sources, was applied for by a Member of Parliament from some constituency other than Santubong?

Call it tarik harga, if you will; I would rather be called being territorial. One may be forgiven for being parochial where one’s interest or that of one’s community is at stake in that district. After all, politics is also about protection of rights and interests and one’s representative in parliament is none other than the MP of the area.

I’m looking forward to dipping my finger in the bottle of the indelible ink for the first time.