Remember, in the last General Election on 8 March 2008, the late Member of Parliament for Hulu Selangor won that seat with less than 200 votes. Therefore, every vote counts. The 30% outstation voters could determine the winner in this coming by-election. So work hard in helping them to go home to Hulu Selangor to vote.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
It is said the coming by-election in Hulu Selangor will be the litmus test for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s 1Malaysia and NEM. How the people vote on 25th April 2010 will reflect whether Najib has the support of Malaysians and whether they believe in his 1Malaysia and NEM.
Basically, the Hulu Selangor by-election would be a vote of confidence or no confidence on Najib. That is why Barisan Nasional needs to win this by-election at all costs.
30% of the Hulu Selangor voters do not live/work in that constituency. Due to employment reasons they are spread out all over Malaysia. Our biggest task, therefore, would be to get these people to return to Hulu Selangor on Polling Day to cast their votes.
Many of you probably want to help in the by-election effort but may not know what type of assistance you can offer. So can I suggest the following?
Set up hotline centres.
Civil society movements, political activists, societies/associations, Bloggers, and even private citizens, can get together to organise the setting up of hotline centres. These hotline centres can be manned 24-7 or during ‘office hours’ only (say 8.00am to 10.00pm).
The purpose of these hotline centres is to organise transportation and to assist voters who do not have transportation but wish to return to Hulu Selangor to vote on Polling Day.
The hotline centre phone numbers can be broadcasted through the Internet and via SMS/e-mail so that voters will know where/who they can phone about their location in Malaysia (or Singapore). The hotline centres can then maintain a database of outstation voters who need transportation to return to Hulu Selangor to vote.
Those who are offering transportation to ferry the voters back to Hulu Selangor can, in turn, also phone the hotline centres to indicate which part of Malaysia (or Singapore) they are located and how many voters they are able to ferry.
Malaysians living in Penang, Kedah, Kelantan, Terennganu, Pahang, Perak, Johor, Singapore, etc., who wish to assist in the by-election effort by offering transportation services for voters who wish to return to Hulu Selangor on Polling Day will also be entered into the database. They will then be matched with the voters in their area.
If you own a car and are able to drive three or four voters home to Hulu Selangor that would be good enough. 100 cars each from Penang, Alor Setar, Taiping, Ipoh, Johor Bharu, Kota Bharu, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Singapore, etc., could mean an additional 1,000 voters.
Those who do not own cars or are not able to drive to Hulu Selangor on Polling Day can arrange chartered buses to ferry these voters. Ten or twenty buses from each major town North and South of Hulu Selangor, added to the private cars, can easily ferry the 30% voters living and working outside Hulu Selangor.
You can get together with a few other friends and share the cost of the chartered buses. You then phone the hotline centres and tell them that you have a bus available, what time it is leaving on Polling Day (for example 6.00am, Komtar Penang), etc. The hotline centres will then phone the voters in their database who live around that area to inform them of the availability of these buses.
Can we start by getting a few volunteers who are prepared to help set up and man these hotline centres?
Once that is done, send us your phone numbers so that they can be broadcasted far and wide.
Next, those who are offering transportation can also contact these hotline centres with the necessary details.
Basically, these hotline centres will offer a ‘matchmaking service’. Those who need transportation to go home to Hulu Selangor on Polling Day will be matched with those who are offering transportation.
Remember, in the last General Election on 8 March 2008, the late Member of Parliament for Hulu Selangor won that seat with less than 200 votes. Therefore, every vote counts. The 30% outstation voters could determine the winner in this coming by-election. So work hard in helping them to go home to Hulu Selangor to vote.
In the meantime, read the following piece by Ernest Z. Bower, the senior adviser and director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
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Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak is clearly gaining momentum in areas he can control, such as economic reform and international relations. His biggest challenge, however, will likely be reform of the political culture of his ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and the coalition it leads, Barisan Nasional (BN). The party and coalition will be tested later this month in the Hulu Selangor by-election.
In truth, the stakes are not as high as with earlier by-elections. Najib has taken control of his government and has made significant headway toward economic revival with his National Economic Model (NEM), pursuing big fish in his push for greater transparency (the Malaysian Anticorruption Commission is questioning a minister in his cabinet, sending a clear message). And relations with major partners such as the United States (he is confirmed for a meeting with U.S. president Barack Obama in about a week’s time) and China are on the upswing. However, the political culture in Malaysia will be a tough challenge for the prime minister.
Despite what must be a clear understanding among thoughtful UMNO leaders and strategists, there are party members that continue to try to persecute opposition leaders such as Anwar Ibrahim and others. This effort seems to be politically counterproductive as it highlights UMNO’s weakest link—the defensive status quo faction of the party.
Najib has proven that he has ideas—good ones—and that he has the political will to bring them to fruition.
Why not take on the opposition in a competition of good ideas and initiatives rather than using parliamentary procedures and the courts? Wouldn’t the country be better served by political competition for ideas that would win hearts and minds? It would be refreshing to see the fight for Hulu Selangor dominated by such initiatives rather than the arcane politics of past generations.
Ernest Z. Bower is a senior adviser and director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
Commentaries are produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).
© 2010 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.
courtesy of malaysia-today.net
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