Read at your own risk: Elections

Hey... Um... Yea, i know it's been awhile since i graced these fine pages with beautiful ink of imprinted black.

But... i guess today i have something to say. It's something that perhaps to some, seems unreasonable or just darn stupid. Paranoia?

I might be crossposting this to other blogs as well, because, i guess it's part propaganda, part opinion and another part extremely educational for those who stay here. Well, it did educate me to a certain extent anyways.
I
t's concerning the elections. Yes, collective gasp everyone. Since when is alin interested enough in politics to *blog* about it. But, something has got me terribly spooked. Truth be told, it was last week i think when all of a sudden posters depicting various logos- most of which i know nothing of to decipher any coherent meaning from- started decorating the walkways, roads, every available breathing space there was.

It was really saying, elections are here.

It scared me because, i suppose it was and is one of my first memories of blatant propaganda. The years before i was too young. I can only recollect images of people lining up from various out of reach places flashing across the tv screen. I guess this time, when i'm an *Adult* it makes a difference.

I remember learning in history class that media is in no way meant to push the people towards a particular party. They are to remain neutral as not to swing anything in any direction. It's either my teacher was lying, i was too ignorant to see the humour or we decided to take a book out of america's free will and manipulation guide for success.

Whatever it was, ads appeared in the television as well as the newspapers. I didn't find this particularly alarming but, because i had faith in my teacher, i knew something had changed. This is the first year i think i believe the opposition has a chance to win though to say that i'm afraid of that, it still somehow misses the mark. I'm worried about the consequences.

The people are changing. It's a good thing right? We thoroughly believe in a system majoring in democracy, or at least a majority that is educated and young enough to take a risk is saying that the old need to be abolished. The new is all that matters. Times are changing. Let us prepare ourselves for the future because the old cannot be depended on to guide us through.

In the end, it is to either carry a corrupt governement, whom we know is corrupt into the future of this nation or hand Our Country to those who are young. Who carry the same dreams as we do. Who believe that this country can be brought further under the guidance of another hand. Enough of the old, they say. Let those who are pure strive to guide us through the right path. Ne?

Haha!! I want to believe the same thing. That we're all good guys in the end. But another thing has got me thinking as well. Darn thoughts that stem from the conversation of others.

A government will always be corrupt right. So i guess that doesn't matter that much (trust me, i do not think i can handle the major burden of voting anytime soon. Thank god i missed this ship) but what about this need for change?

How can we preserve the practice of the old yet change? Sometimes i wonder what's so bad. Everyone says we're an apartheid society and that there's unfairness everywhere. You can see the shadows of the suppressed as they curse our existence. Yes, i'm one of those who is ignorant enough to ask such a question. I'm one of the privileged here.

But, my mother was telling me about the riot of 69. I guess once writing it here, i can come up with no concrete proof. I apologize. It is also a biased view of things, therefore, do not expect fair criticism from me because my eyes are already tinted. Whatever i say can be held against me through every aspect.

She said, it was after an election such as this where the opposition had won. I think it was a Chinese majority. The Malays were outraged. My mum said it might be silly of them as well because the Chinese party could have only won with *their* votes. She commented that they thought they were intelligent when they did it not understanding the consequences. That was the basis of the riot. Though much good that did. All it did was kill.

She mentioned the worries of these Malays. She said, usually, if a company is of Chinese ownership, chances are, a criteria for acceptence would be your race to be Chinese. I'm unsure if i've mentioned this before. I might have but i assure it is only out of the incoherence of thought. It is concerning a University Malaya incident where the Dean had been a Chinese. Chinese lecturers eventually found themselves spots in the University. The acceptence rate for the Malays dropped because, the quota had shifted.

I'm not mentioning this as a bad thing, i have to say. I am pointing out an observation. I know there are those out there who would say, "They deserved this. Look at what they've done to us and when we turn the tables, we get blog entries such as this."

I'm not surprised actually. Are you if they say that?

I did ask my mum if it was the same anywhere else in the world. My mum answered that chances are not because not many countries are multi-racial and not at gun point with each other. I wanted to say we aren't racist and we don't hate each other, but that might just be my friends and i. Everyone else seems to have something bad to say about the others that it pains my ear to hear.

The reaction of the Chinese Dean which was to immediately preserve his race i can't say is wrong. He's just trying to help his people, can you fault that? It is just the same with the Malay Dean. Only people have more complaints about the Malay man because we have the law and thingamajigs on our side. We're wrong because of that.

I think that's the mentality here or at least, that would be the political mentality. If you're not Malay or bumiputera, you're suppressed. You grow up believing that, viewing everything with those eyes. Have you ever wondered what you see?

But, then again, i grew up with the eyes of 'the fortunate'. I can't see this hatred and suppression that you see. I'm sorry...

What i do believe, is that we need leaders who are not prone to selecting one race over the other. I know of the quota system and understand its faults. A large portion of the cake, they say goes to the bumiputera however, though this is the condition, the Chinese and Indians are still allowed on the cake too. Mean much, my words?

Hence, the fortunate eyes.

What if only one race is allowed to dominate the cake. Wouldn't that be worst?

The best is if everyone can attack the cake together. That will be the perfect system.

But what if someone is too weak to attack the cake. It's wrong isn't it to hand them crutches so that they can run.

Equality sometimes isn't displayed by numbers. It's a qualitative count that exists in the most menial of ways.

Everything in life is a double-edged sword. Sometimes, you need to win together to make things work. The fact that the government isn't helping people who are capable of making it angers others. Point, that's biased, you're gonna say. I agree. But, i'm for winning together.

At the cost of the happiness of others? How selfish.

Am i? How rich and fortunate are you suppose to be to be happy?

Honestly? I don't know how to be fair in this. Mostly because i don't know enough. I know not enough demographics to make a complete comparison neither am i clear on the delegation of economy in the country.

All i know is, we need the Goreng Pisang seller, and the Garbage collector. We need the waiter, the college counselor and the local writer. We need comic artists, the translators, the guy we can admire in the local cafe. We need everyone in society to hold up the bargain that is the ideology of nationalism.

It's retarded, it's stupid and hurts because, each word they say pack a punch of lies. We're angered because they're trying to make us believe things that aren't true.

I get angry too but i know why they do it.

It just hurts because they enjoy doing it as well. Or to me it seems so.

I'm not particularly worried about my children not getting scholarships as my mum puts it. I guess that means they just have to work extra hard to get their places. Placing the Malays in the minority might teach us a lesson to be the suppressed.

I won't say that i'm looking forward to it but, if it comes without bloodshed, i'd take it anyday.

The good thing about the Chinese people is that, when they're down, they get right back up. They push themselves. I know scholarships are often pushed to Bumiputeras (you have to know the rightplaces for these statistics. Sadly, i don't. I'm ignorant, remember?) but, they build themselves right up. I've heard of a few scholarships, mainly the newspapers that are there to support them.

In the future, if it comes to the Malaysia that is owned by the Chinese (I'm sorry other ethnic groups. You aren't in the discussion yet cause this is the situation now >.<) they do change *us* for the better. And if other places falls to any other party, whoever it is, whatever you stand for, in the end perhaps you should work for the better of *all*. It might be too much to ask based on the concept of 'what works for you not necessarily works for me' but by trying, we make lesser mistakes than when we don't, right?

I pray there be no riot of '69 over again because we've all learned history. The biggest war of our age, the Iraq war, only started a few years ago. We can't destroy one another! That's just silly.

But either way, i can feel the fear in the air.

Please do take care of youself.

Okay. Phew, that's a lot of words, eh? =P

Let's hope tomorrow is brighter than today =D

Alin

I just placed that in Lj, and i realized the entry is full of holes. I know how to attack me if anything comes and there'd be no way for me to defend any neutrality i might posses. This is why i fear speaking up sometimes because we're easily labelled and such but, bite the bullet my man.

I realize how irrational some of the thoughts are. If i was fair, i'd cross-check the threat the Malays posses from every ethnic group and vice versa. That's the only remedy to the holes. Because to say that you only have one worry in a situation is far from the truth but, i can't help it. I'm not too well versed in statistics.

The entry, if i was to analyze it, would be more of expressing worry for the coming storm while the second is expressing worry through my eyes. I'm sorry for not being academic in these entries and providing a neutral ground for argument. I just needed a place to vent my fears.

I pray this harms you not...