I'm a Malaysian citizen who's been living in Switzerland since I married my German husband two and a half years ago. Ever since I made the move to Europe, though, I've been keeping an eye on the political situation back in my native country. Earlier this year, when it became apparent that a general election was imminent, I flew back to Malaysia -- 6,200 miles away -- just so that I could vote.
Unfortunately, after my arrival, the government decided to hold off on calling the new election, so when I couldn't wait any longer I flew back to Zurich -- only to hear the news that Prime Minister Najib Razak had dissolved parliament. Soon after that the date of the new election was set: May 5.
So I turned around and flew back to Malaysia.
Yeah, it's crazy. But I'm not the only one. Many of my compatriots in Malaysia's far-flung expat community -- it's estimated that there are around one million of us around the world -- are doing the same thing. That's a reflection of how high the stakes are in the upcoming election -- and how strongly many of us want to vote for change.
The 2013 general election (or "GE13," as Malaysians like to call it) is shaping up to be one of the most decisive battles in the country's modern history. The ruling National Front Coalition (Barisan Nasional or BN) has run Malaysia for the past 56 years. The opposition People's Pact (Pakatan Rakyat or PR) believes that the chance may have finally come to challenge BN's hold on power.
I don't think it's important to tell you which candidates I'm voting for. Suffice it to say that I don't think it's a goodthing when one group of people run a country for so long, and that I believe we desperately need change. In my own life as a Malaysian I've experienced far too much in the way of discrimination, injustice, bureaucracy, and inefficiency. And I don't want others who live in Malaysia to go through the same things.
So why not just vote absentee? Can't I just sign up to send in my vote by mail? Why do I need to go to the trouble of taking a sixteen-hour flight just so that I can be there in person at the polling place? After all, there's plenty of evidence that the government won't shy away from tampering with the vote even if you're physically present in Malaysia.
It should be noted that this is the first time in Malaysia's history that citizens living overseas have the chance to vote (with the exception of some Malaysians in a few other Southeast Asian countries). But very few -- only about 0.6 percent -- have actually signed up to vote absentee. Thousands have decided instead to return home solely for the election. (Malaysian Sam Khor and his wife paid flight penalty and postponed their trip to stay back not even to vote, but to register as counting agents to monitor and report malpractice.
Some of them may have opted to do this because the absentee voting law doesn't actually make it very easy for overseas Malaysians to register. But I think the far more important reason is that most of us don't trust the government to tally our votes, especially when we're not there to stand up for our right to be counted.
Over the past few years Malaysias have witnessed the astonishing growth of the Bersih ("Clean") reform movement, a grassroots initiative that has galvanized the longing for free and fair elections. (The most recent Bersih demo a year ago drew up to a quarter of a million people onto the streets of Kuala Lumpur.) That's a response to widespread and credible reports of vote tampering that traditionally plague Malaysian elections.
Government meddling spans vote buying, ballot box stuffing, multiple voting (including busing of pro-government voters to other constituencies), and even the granting of quick citizenship (with voting rights) to illegal immigrants who are instructed how to vote. Many of us fear that there will be even more such shenanigans this time around, given the government's obvious nervousness about its eroding support in recent by-elections. (The minister of education, for example, recently called together teachers and told them to vote for the BN-led government.) Our distrust extends to the national election commission, which has uncomfortably close ties to BN and offers little in the way of independent oversight.
Overseas Malaysians offer particular opportunities for fraud. There have been recent reports of Malaysian citizens living in China who have been registered as postal voters without their knowledge. In one case, a businessman residing in Shanghai for over nine years discovered that he'd registered as a voter in Kelantan, although he has never been to the state. In fact, he's never even registered as a voter. Such tales of "phantom voters" reinforce the notion that the best way to prevent such fraud is by showing up at the polls. (The Election Commission has already admitted that some 42,000 names on the electoral roll are actually "phantoms," and civil society organizations fear that the number is far higher.)
So far I've spoken with Malaysians in Afghanistan, Australia, and the United Kingdom who are planning to fly home to cast their ballots. Two university students in Taipei each spent a sum equivalent to a month of living expenses in order to purchase tickets home. One middle-aged Malaysian lady posted a photo of herself online at Los Angeles International Airport as she prepared to head pack to her hometown of Perak. "I am flying home from Los Angeles to cast my precious vote!" she wrote, "I refuse to be dumb anymore for my grandchildren and next generations. I love my country. I love the land where I have grown up ~ Malaysia! Change!"
Some Malaysians have responded by getting together to help others make the trip. The local branch of Bersih in Shanghai has initiated a "Go Back to Vote Campaign" that is offering 500 renminbi (about $82) for airfare to Malaysians in the city who might not be able to afford the trip home. Bersih Shanghai's Weng Liew estimates that a total of 3,000 people have confirmed flying home from China. Bersih's Hong Kong chapter has launched a similar campaign, offering 500 Hong Kong dollars (about $60) towards a plane ticket "A high turnout will minimize fraud and offers a better chance of stability in the event there is regime change or hung parliament," says Lee Willson of Bersih Hong Kong.
Of all the Malaysians living abroad, by far the biggest group -- some 300,000 to 5000,000 -- is in Singapore. Two travel companies, easibook.com and catchhatbus.com, have jointly launched a promotion bus fare for all Malaysians working in Singapore to go home to vote. One company says it will be doubling the number of coaches making the trip (from 50 to 100). Some Malaysians working in Singapore are also arranging carpools or offering lifts to compatriots through social media. That prompted the Electoral Commission to warn foreigners not to drive Malaysians cross the border in cars with foreign plates.
Norman Goh told me that he'd decided to fly back from Singapore to vote in his home state of Sarawak. He told me that the journey home to vote for some of his friends from there will only be beginning when they get off the flight from Singapore. They still face another two hours by bus and then another three by boat in order to arrive at their destinations deep in the jungles of Borneo.
This all might sound rather extreme. But it's actually pretty reasonable. Many of my compatriots are tired of the corruption and racism that rule over public life in our country. We want to establish a truly bipartisan system that encourages real checks and balances. And we want a country that's clean, green, safe, and progressive. To get there, we have to vote.
-foreignpolicy.com
Friday, April 19, 2013
Why I'm Flying Back to Malaysia to Vote
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Salute to you. I bet Switzerland is the best place
ReplyDeleteThanks for going back home.
ReplyDeleteJalankan tanggungjawab anda
ReplyDeleteFlying high in the sky.
ReplyDeleteNasib juga kau ingat balik untuk mengundi.
ReplyDeleteYou have done a great job
ReplyDeleteKemunculan ramai calon Bebas pada pilihan raya umum ke-13 ini membuktikan demokrasi subur di negara ini, kata Naib Presiden UMNO, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
ReplyDeleteBeliau berkata walau berapa ramai pun calon yang bertanding pada pilihan raya ini, akhirnya pengundilah yang akan menentukan calon yang layak mewakili mereka.
ReplyDelete“Tetapi pengundi harus bijak (memilih) calon. Yang penting ialah calon Barisan Nasional (BN) kerana apabila BN dapat menjadi wakil rakyat, mereka akan membantu rakyat.
ReplyDelete“Saya fikir kita tolaklah (calon Bebas) kerana yang bertanding Bebas kebanyakan orang yang kecewa apabila tidak dicalonkan parti,” katanya selepas merasmikan Karnival Sukan Rakyat di Sungai Ipil
ReplyDeleteSebanyak 79 calon bagi Parlimen dan 191 calon DUN akan bertanding atas tiket Bebas pada PRU13 ini.
ReplyDeletewish you the best in the election day
ReplyDeleteBe the smartest one
ReplyDeleteBegini la semangat orang sabah kan
ReplyDeleteVote for the best one
ReplyDeleteGlobal media star Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim targets the international media because it gives him an easy ride. And he must have thought he was onto a winner Monday when he sat down to be interviewed by CNBC. After all, the last foreign journalist he spoke to seemed to buy his line that the government is out to have him murdered.
ReplyDeleteBut despite some back-slapping, CNBC had done its homework. It challenged Anwar on the contradictory signals he is sending out and targeted Pakatan Rakyat's manifesto.
ReplyDelete"How would you answer your critics who say your manifesto is more populism than true reform?" the interviewer asked.
ReplyDeleteAnwar had to pause before sidestepping the question, instead talking about "good governance" in the Pakatan states – poor economic performance and dodgy land deals notwithstanding. But the two CNBC presenters weren't finished there.
ReplyDeleteThey cornered him on the "mixed messages" Pakatan is sending out: promising to wind back Bumiputra polices (which is unsurprisingly not detailed in the Pakatan manifesto) while at the same time paving the way for PAS' sharia law.
ReplyDelete"We cannot deny the right of the Islamic party or Muslims to articulate their mission of what sharia stands for," Anwar responded. "But we cannot allow them or any party to compel the party or non-Muslims to accept the sharia," he said, without mentioning that he could be powerless to stop PAS if it gets the numbers in GE13.
ReplyDeleteGiven the CNBC programme has a business audience, Anwar was put on the spot about what a potential Pakatan government would mean for foreign investment. His interviewers said investors have liked the predictability under Najib, while Anwar threatens to abandon current projects already underway. This includes Lynas and RAPID which are named in Pakatan's manifesto.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time any foreign journalist has publicly pointed out to Anwar that a Pakatan government could be bad for business (something the stock market here already knows), and Anwar could only answer in terms of his big-spending socialist vision.
ReplyDelete"I do support market economics," he claimed reassuringly, "but we must allow for some measure of distributive justice".
ReplyDeleteThat sound you can here is the investment community heading for the door at the thought of his 1970s socialism. Could the last banker out of KLCC please turn off the lights?
ReplyDeletehe rest of the interview contained classic Anwar contradictions. He said "you cannot compare Malaysia to the Arab Spring", despite the fact he did exactly that a year ago. He was also asked a total softball question about the MACC which the journalist suggested was a "toothless tiger," despite its growing list of convicted offenders. Naturally, that one caused Anwar little discomfort.
ReplyDeleteThis interview was never going to cause Anwar any sleepless nights, but for once, he was being asked about the contradictions within his coalition, the frailties of Pakatan's manifesto, and the idea that the business world doesn't want him in Seri Perdana.
ReplyDeleteIn those respects he will have found this a tougher workout than his usual international media chit-chat.
ReplyDeleterakyat luar negara jg harus balik mengundi
ReplyDeletewow great, Ini baru Malaysian namanya :)
ReplyDeleteNajib cakap PRU kali ini bukan lagi mengenai masa lampau sebaliknya ia adalah mengenai masa hadapan kita bersama. Segalanya adalah mengenai impian kita untuk melihat hala tuju negara. Anda perlu membuat pilihan untuk masa depan negara yang kita cintai.
ReplyDeleteNajib juga cakap mereka benar-benar sedang melakukan perubahan. Namun, masih banyak yang perlu dilakukan untuk memastikan transformasi negara dapat dilaksanakan. Dengan mandat yang kukuh daripada rakyat, kita mampu melaksanakan tugas ini dengan baik.
ReplyDeletePara pengundi harus buat keputusna yang bijak dan pastikan tidak tersalah undi nanti.
ReplyDeleteJangan terikut dengan budaya kasar dan suka bergaduh yang dibawa oleh sesetengah pihak dan parti. Tak kira siapapun kita undi pastikan keselamatan dan keharmonian tetap dijamin.
ReplyDeleteMasing-masing memainkan peranan sebagai warganegara.
ReplyDeletePengundi harus membuat penilaian dan membuat undian dalam tangan dengan bijak sekali.
ReplyDeleteYang penting, PRU harus dilaksanakan dengan bersih, adil dan amanah.
ReplyDeleteInisiatif ini amat menggalakkan.
ReplyDeleteGood luck and hope they can make a right choice.
ReplyDeletebagaimana jika pengundian pos dibuat?mungkin lebih menjimatkan masa dan wang bagi seorang rakyat Malaysia yang berada di luar negara.
ReplyDeleteShe has done her responsibility as a voter.tapi yang ada di Malaysia sendiri, ada juga yang tidak mengundi walaupun sudah layak.
ReplyDeleteMemang bagus kalau ada promosi tiket atau tiket percuma diberikan kepada mereka yang tinggal di luar negara.
ReplyDeleteSebaiknya dia beli tiket time PM sudah umumkan dengan rasmi tarikh PRU tu.
ReplyDelete