NOVEMBER 17 — It’s always the mother of all elections. But when the victory parade is over, the confetti’s swept up, the rest of us have to carry on. Without elections in our lives, for years at least.
The parliamentarians to Dewan Rakyat, and us to our lives.
And in the ensuing days, dreary thoughts will return. Our politicians disappoint us, they have lied to us about promises and they are never around.
To which the easy summary is applied: all politicians are the same. They deceive to benefit themselves. Do they?
What if aliens from further off solar systems unpacked our impossible situation, since they are not personally invested in our democratic distractions? Aliens, not external meddlers of our affairs. Like the United States, United Nations or United Colours of Benetton.
Would they conclude two threads operate parallelly, that in our universe politicians are human and selfish but exist in a space where voters are human and selfish. Politicians fail us because they are too much like us?
The demand for selflessness in our politicians is impossible without our own commitment to demand selflessness from ourselves, and by extension from our elected representatives.
Not just on election day, which is also counting day. But to make politicians fear for support every day from the day after elections to the day elections are called again, by our vigilant presence. The standard 1,500 days or sooner.
On Polling Day
The primer was necessary because talk about voting in a world of imperfections invites criticisms, and after a tirade with no end product, seemingly justifies apathy.
Why bother when the choices are poor?
We do not buy shoes if the ones on sale are unattractive, right? Therefore, we can wait for the next sale or do without shoes for now.
Except the sales analogy does not apply to elections.
Firstly, when it is about shoes, one can live with sandals or go barefoot. [Secondly, unlike sales, voters have to wait for four Christmases to pass before they vote again.]
Countries cannot be managed by outsiders, like Singapore manages us for four years since we cannot make up our minds about the choices we have. Or Malaysia goes without a government for four years, because choices depress us.
The choice to not choose is not elegant silence, it is personal sabotage.
Government must function for the nation to exist, and choosing to stay out does not mean the government elected stays out of the lives of those who chose to opt out.
Like when the government decided late that Friday, November 18 will be a national holiday to facilitate voting travel. All Malaysians get a holiday whether they like it or not.
Companies on shift duty have to end up paying double or triple as per their SOP to work on a public holiday. Those companies have to bear the burden of additional costs or a loss of an operational day whether they like it or not.
That’s just a sliver of the government's power.
It is mighty and may trap you in a documentational hell, or unresponsive services or legal bind. Your legislators, elected in two days, decide the nature of government and whether it is to your benefit or not.
So, it is not an option, even if you are infinitely uncertain who to pick.
Just put on some clothes, find the MyKad and head to your polling station, even in an agitated state.
Outside the room
Uncertain or not, when at the polling station, another feeling begins to fill the air, and affects the voter.
The knowledge that the voter is not alone.
From the parking spot or along the walk from home, there is noise and a sense of festival.
Yet just inside the venue, it becomes more sombre.
Around 4,000 voters or so, at each voting centre.
The number matters even if people slip in and out over over 10 hours. There will always be other voters. Those in your own predicament. Forced to choose when to not choose is the less radical option.
But these physical presences remind us, voting is not isolated.
You are bound to bump into a neighbour, schoolmate or that ever present person at the mamak whose name escapes you. Never mind, a smile and nod will do. Voting is local. Your choices affect other people’s — actual humans — happiness.
If the candidates infuriate, the presence of your community members steadies you.
And here is a winning quality about elections, it comforts you. That you determine things for those people you know. It becomes a tangible obligation, not a chore.
Ballot in hand
One marking on a piece of paper has so much force, amazing. (We really need to rush along electronic voting.)
If the names still look the same, it is not a sign that the decision to turn up to vote was poor. It is a sign, now that you realise, because the choices are insipid, the duty to participate in those 1,500 days to the next election only grows more serious.
Whoever is chosen might lose. The greater point is all of those on that list can equally disappoint.
What happens after the first bit of “owning the situation” by voting? An interest to know more thereafter.
Too much bother?
Men and women 500 years ago generally did not have to bother about voter registration, polling centre information, candidate information, MP engagement or watching painful parliamentary proceedings.
They also might be indentured labourers or worse, slaves.
It is a no-brainer that we are all better off today, and that all of these things, these irritants have their roots in the collective pain our ancestors felt and their struggle to be freer.
But the column gets ahead of itself.
Participation is time asked of voters. It does take us away from our daily lives but it also gives us a chance to ensure our daily lives are better.
Democracy begins at home means it begins in our hearts. In the individual’s heart.
But for now, while the heart opens up, go and vote, whichever way it goes.
Selamat mengundi!
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
