Its that time again

I spoke an old friend yesterday. In the brief conversation, he mentioned that I should vote for PAS and as usual with many PAS supporters that I know, his suggestion carries undertones that should I not vote for PAS, there is something wrong with me. The conversation added to my amusement of the behaviour of my fellow countrymen in this election times. I have also been hearing amusing stories about my friends and relatives in the campaigning mayhem in Kelantan. It seems that every few years, when the election time comes, my fellow countrymen, and women, lose their minds.

If you listen to one side, you will conclude that the supporters of the other side are nuts but if you listen closely (and read closely too) you will find that both sides are really not doing too well.

In my younger days, I was anti-establishment too but that path held only disappointments and frustration. The people whom I supported turned out to me just as hypocritical and untrustworthy as anybody else, if not more so.

My oppositionist friends, in my view, seem to have missed something about the BN coalition: they seems to have failed to realise how pervasive presence of the the BN coalition is in the minds of Malaysians, from both sides of the political fence.

We have seen two splinter parties who have failed to push the older party off their seat of power. From where I sat, it seems that the moment they separated from UMNO, they tried be another UMNO but with different basic ideas. That instantly made them copycats. In one case, the basis of their struggle was that their leader who was an UMNO politician was accused, and proven in the court of law, to have misused his power, consequently he was incarcerated. I thought, isn't that what the oppositionists want? Today, My oppositionist friends are still telling me that BN – UMNO politicians misuse their power when in office. I wonder what they will do if or when another high-ranking and well-known UMNO politician, or politicians from the BN coalition, gets accused of abusing his position for his own benefit? Are we going to build another political party and then take to the streets trying to get the man or woman free? As for the politician's conduct, I think the one thing that showed that the some of the BN politicians can be formidable is that man from down south. He didn't deny that he was the guy in the video, instead he retired from politics, if I may add, like a gentleman. I respect that.

When the oppositionists are said to not have any idea how to manage the economy of the nation, they replied in a huff, that they had commissioned a well-known thinker to draw up a serious alternative economic plan. They also claim that the BN later borrowed ideas from this plan in their own economic plans. When I talk to many of their own supporters, I see not inkling that they know of this plan. Why did they fail to make it better known to the public. If they had made the plan more accessible, they would have given their own supporters better ground on which to stand and defend them, instead of having to fall back on anger and hate. In addition, they may have swayed political-agnostics in their favour. My oppositionist friends tell me that the Coalition politicians talk to the masses as if they were kindergarten children, from where I stand, I see and hear the Opposition politicians talk to us as if we are retarded. I think I would rather be regarded as a child than retarded.

My acquaintances tell me that we should vote the opposition so that it would force the BN to grow up. If the BN, are like children, I think the opposition politicians are equally childish in their behaviour and speeches. What's the point in voting one child to take the place of another child? At least the latter child already knows hot to play with the toys. The former child might break the toy in learning to play with it.

My friend told me yesterday that they want to deny the BN a two third majority. I say, “great! Fine!” but please I beg you, give me a good and strong reason to have some confidence in your side. As it is, I only see spiteful children.

I have a few more days to decide who to vote for on Saturday 8^th. A few more days to listen to both sides of the story. The blatant one-sidedness of the mass media is making me shake my head, the ubiquitousness of the BN propaganda is making me yawn. Yet when I look to the other side, I see nothing to build my confidence in them. A few more days to think.