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THIS is not a commercial advertisement for sunscreen lotion but it is about my thoughts leading up to the 14th general election.
True story: my daughter came home from school looking so tanned. I asked if she had played under the sun. She told me the fire alarm went off (supposedly a fire drill) and they had to gather in the school field under the hot sun.
I asked again, “Why didn’t you use the sunscreen lotion I bought for you inside your school bag?! “
My daughter, clearly frustrated with my logic, exclaimed: “It’s a fire mommy! How can I find time to put my lotion?”
I couldn’t get her sentence out of my mind.
Some Malaysians express their disgust at the “far from perfect” opposition coalition’s choice or strategy to win the coming elections.
“How can you propose a 90-year-old man to be prime minister again? Don’t you have anyone apart from Lim Kit Siang leading the DAP? Rafizi shouldn’t say this, Wan Azizah shouldn’t say that. How different is Bersatu? Amanah should not demand for so many seats”… and so on.
When your nation faces a threat as fierce as a fire, we do not have the luxury of time to orchestrate an ideal scenario for escape.
Economy is tough. Our RM100 today is like our RM50 of yesterday. Our RM50 today is like RM10. And our RM10 is now like RM1.
Eating out is expensive. Cooking at home is not cheap either. Schools have become political tools for BN. Teachers are held to ransom for their votes. They are not free to educate what is right. Quality of education drops.
Bullies. Drug addicts. Children are abused, sexually and physically.
Some young people claim they have time, so let’s spoil votes this round and punish the opposition for their failures.
A lot is at stake in GE14 – for Barisan Nasional and for the rest of us Malaysians. No one will willingly surrender power without a fight. How far will Umno go to give it a good fight? Najib once said “to win at all costs”. Scary.
The political scene remains an unlevel playing field. Look at the re-delineation exercise by the Election Commission. Look at the excessive imprisonment sentence given to Rafizi Ramli.
I am not asking for sympathy votes or for you to go out and vote blindly. I am all for political reforms. We have implemented a lot of legislative reforms in Selangor.
We didn’t take the votes for granted. Neither did we assume a perpetual rule. We raced against time to get things changed.
Perhaps when you vote this round, imagine a little the scenario for others and go beyond the four walls of your world.
How will your vote change the lives of others who cannot afford what you have?
Don’t boycott the elections. Don’t spoil your vote.
In 2008, it was a call for stronger opposition. Despite having a stronger opposition, BN can still cook up a scandal as big as 1MDB.
2018 must see the dismantling of federal power for BN. A stronger opposition is no longer enough to un-do a nation “on fire”.
Pakatan Harapan has assembled the best team we can find given the present circumstances.
It is far from perfect, I know, and I too wish we could apply some “sunscreen lotion” on them to “guarantee” they will never betray us when the heat comes.
But if you sit around and wait too long for the perfect escape to come, the house will be in ruins.
Come out strong to vote. Let’s take more states and let’s give one more try at Putrajaya. Let’s go! – February 11, 2018.
* Hannah Yeoh is Subang Jaya assemblyman.
* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.
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Comments
If BN can bring its ego down and plead with the people for it, the opposition should not hesitate to do the same. Afterall, BN has won 13 elections while the opposition has won none. If the fellas who has won 13 time can swallow his ego and plead with the people to vote for them, why can't the opposition do the same?
Why must the opposition keep telling the people that it just wants to do the the people a favour, and that the people will only be doing themselves a favour by voting for the opposition?
Why can't the opposition just bring down their ego and plead with the people to do the opposition a favour, and just say that by voting for the opposition the people would have done the opposition a favour, and the opposition will then be indebted to the people.
After all, like hannah teoh says here, if the opposition is sincere in the realisation of its imperfection, why are you they so proud still ? Why are they talking and acting as if theirs is the giving hand, when theirs is in fact the asking hand?
In 2008 and 2013, the opposition lost simply because of its ego - if the opposition could simply bring down its ego and plead with the people to do them a favour, and vote for them in 2008 and 2013, the government could changed then itself.
Instead, the opposition lost the 2008 and 2013 election simply because it turned a lot of people who could have easily supported it by being unable to lower its ego. Instead of pleading with the people to do them a favour, it went around acting as if it was the opposition that was doing the people a favour.
Lets hope that the opposition doesn't repeat the same mistake in 2018, though to tell you the truth, i am not optimistic at all that it wont.
Posted 8 years ago by Nehru Sathiamoorthy · Reply
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