JANUARY 4 ― This 1965 movie title, Situation Hopeless…But Not Serious described as an oddball comedy helmed by Alec Guinness and co-starred Mike Connors  (Mannix tv fame) and Robert Redford, has stayed in my mind like forever. I thought it kind of cute because we are faced with real-life situations resembling the title ever so often. Yes, if we have to, lament a little; but find the solutions and just move on.

Our SNAFUs

Situation Normal, All Fouled (with acceptable language) Up could best sum up the most silly situations our poor nation had to contend with, with such regularity.

Where does one begin to explain the twice rejected cheques? We now know it had zilch to do with a Christian group or the Chinese charity entity, or the silly “non-halal” notion. It seems that there was a discrepancy between the cheque details and bank records, which would have been easily resolved with a senior personnel’s discretion. Didn’t the fact that the nation has been under “tenterhooks” because of the constant raising of race and religion set an alarm with branch executives?

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The resultant consequence was that our nation had to witness a classic SNAFU!

Kedah state political leadership announced plans to discontinue the gaming outlet licensing because they are against gambling. Isn’t this casting the “gambling net” really wide? If bets which can be as low as a few ringgit a week is considered harmful, then how do we reconcile with the serious “rapid” buying and selling in the stock exchange? Create a new ruling ― all purchases can’t be traded for three, or maybe six months? Is this Kedah government aware that “friendly bets” is commonplace during EPL games? Ban the live telecasts?

How can we forget the infamous “Timah Whisky” issue which was raging for a few weeks? It was urgent enough to warrant debates in parliament (but not for our flood crisis) and eventually this SNAFU had a happy ending for the manufacturers and retailers. “Brand recall” was stupendous and sales increased multiple-folds.

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A few years earlier we had “snoop teams” scouring parks to catch courting couples who held hands. A little romancing is taboo? And perhaps one of the most memorable SNAFU is the contentious “Allah” issue which has now “disappeared” and we hope… permanently?

All citizens and civil societies support moral and ethical behavior without question. In fact good governments must expect that morality and ethics automatically kicks in where there are loopholes within written guidelines. However, most unfortunately for us, the puritanical approach is surfacing instead.

With the digital era in our midst isn’t it sheer common sense that we rely on good education/guidance and good behaviours (of elders) rather than “moral policing” and even more prohibitions and punishments? Governments or political leaderships knowing best is completely passé.

And don’t we find it spectacularly amazing that these same people who continue to “cast a looming shadow” on what we can or cannot watch, eat and drink, to name, or on types of leisure and entertainment activities, etc but are oblivious to unquestionably the most destructive behaviours ie. unabated corruption,  grand thievery and blatant power abuses?

Undi18 and automatic voter registration

The lowering of voting age from 21 to 18 and automatic voter registration was implemented December 31, 2021.

An Election Commission officer dips a voter’s finger in indelible ink during early voting for the Sarawak state poll in Kuching December 14, 2021. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
An Election Commission officer dips a voter’s finger in indelible ink during early voting for the Sarawak state poll in Kuching December 14, 2021. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

When the exercise is completed there will be an increase of 5.8 million eligible voters or nearly 40 percent more added to the current 15.8 million. In GE15 we should have a new total of 21.1 million voters as announced by Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi, minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law).

The gerrymandering and malapportionment of constituencies have been raised on many occasions as the real flaws in our electoral system. The weightage between rural and urban seats is set at levels which boggles reasonable assessments. For example Serdang Constituency with 180,000 electorates is four times that of typical semi urban/rural seats. In some instances it is up to five times. Analysts opined that if the weightage had been set at between two to three times instead, at least 30 seats could change hands immediately.

Can we expect the Election Commission to recognise this serious anomaly with regards to fair and reasonable representations, and make corrections during the next delineation exercise? We can’t continue debunking the “popular vote” principle and insists that it is democracy at play!

Meanwhile how much can we expect Undi18 and automatic voter registration to help square matters somewhat? Many are depending on the youth idealism zeal to effect changes. But we are also warned to expect that even greater over-representation can happen because more youths are registered within locations that offer more jobs and careers.

Will the Serdang and Damansara constituencies register a ridiculous over 200,000 voters each in GE15? Putrajaya constituency is listed with 27,306 electors for GE14.

Postscript

Kelantan discontinued gaming outlets licensing in 1990 and Terengganu in 1999. I have no idea how much it has helped contain social problems but I have heard of a thriving black market gambling sector. Punters place bets with no hassles (via mobile), no time limitation, no age restriction and with credit terms.

It appears an open leisure gaming activity is a black market gambling industry somewhere else, unplanned of course. Unlicensed money lending is another offshoot.

The gaming sector is worth about RM10 billion per annum and RM1.5 billion goes to MoF coffers. And if Kedah proceeds with its intentions MoF will lose some but the state black market gambling industry will get a boost, together with its attendant activities!

* Datuk Lee Yew Meng is the former CEO/MD of Genovasi Malaysia which ran the Design Thinking School and Genovasi University College. He has been involved in the communications industry for over 40 years with executive roles in The Star and theSun, and was also the StratCom consultant to Agensi Inovasi Malaysia. Presently he is the Corporate Adviser to several companies, including Greencom Biotech Sdn Bhd.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.