With all that’s going on right now in Malaysia, I don’t particularly enjoy reading political blogs. I ignore them altogether, save for a few feeds that I subscribe to.
I feel it is completely pointless now to read anything related to politics. The reason is because politics are built on heavy doses of opinion. And unless and until people understand the weight of that opinion, it goes over the head and into the bush and seeps into the ground where it is never found again.
I propose that people tune their ears to something more practical – our lives, within the context of society.
I am proposing the institutional equivalent of removing our iron porch gates, taking down our neighbor-fences and our window grills.
Hence this blog, which is about making simple decisions about our lives in order to make a difference.
Now, I am about to shed light on an observation I’ve made about our new political environment post March 8, 2008. I don’t particularly enjoy talking about politics, but I feel I have a case here, so hear me out.
Back then, when cows roamed the earth, people sat back and did not bother too much about party representation. There was a ‘de facto’ party in power, and things just ‘ran’ – for better or for worse.
On March 8, 2008… some few million registered voters decided to change the game, and we ended up with a colorful group of very different parties making up the government. A good case study for democracy. A bad case of a social wake-up call.
Here’s where I will state my observation – Most people who voted for change did not understand that an individual’s life changes dramatically according to the political environment. Now that we see a purer democracy in operation, it also implies that citizens (not just politicians) need to be more proactive in making things happen.
Last time, when the de facto government (hereby declared as DFG) was in power, things were a lot simpler. There was 1. the government, and 2. people outside the government. When you had problems, you blamed the government.
Now, it’s different – because the government is really now made up of groups of people who don’t agree with one another, not just by principle, but by representation (or party). Just look at how colorful it is now.
Party A runs this place. Party B who doesn’t like Party A runs the other place. Then Party D who runs the Federal government in this part doesn’t get along with anyone. Then Party J who is supposed to represent Party A and D decides it doesn’t want to anymore.
It’s now an official mess. We only have 10 fingers – and we can’t use all of them to point the blame to everyone now, because there are now too many camps!
The good news is that with more parties involved, the tendency for corruption is less (I hear cheers).
The bad news is, when there is less corruption, more work needs to be done - not by the government, but by its citizens.
So, that means you who voted the opposition in don’t have an excuse to sit back and watch the action anymore… because it’s no longer just the government and the people. It’s now more complicated, and you need to make an effort to act on issues that matter more to you than before.
Do yourself a favor and list down everything you care about that takes place in the community. Here are some things on my list:
- good clean roads
- don’t want to die from dengue fever
- landscaping is beautiful
- street lights on at night
- no muggings
See – what usually happens is that I complain when these list of things go bad, and shut up when they’re ok. I believe this is what most Malaysians end up doing.
We shouldn’t be doing that anymore.
Why?
Because the government is no longer giving you one experience, like vanilla flavor. It is instead giving you the right to choose what experience you want to have, like Baskin Robbins 31. This means that you have to choose the experience that matters to you most, by calling up your state or federal representatives and get them to swing decisions and policies to your benefit.
Last time, people didn’t do that because they just ate the vanilla experience. Even if they wanted chocolate, they couldn’t get chocolate, because the DPG wouldn’t let them.
So now that you can make a change, you must! Because if you don’t, someone else will make a change, and that change may not be what you want it to be. It’s no longer you and the government. It’s you and everyone else.
Time to find who your real friends are.
Take for example, shopping malls… everyone loves them. But not in my backyard. What do you do if it ends up in your backyard? Who made the decision to put it there? Now that you have the power to influence decisions like that, you must. Otherwise, the shopping mall is going to end up in your backyard.
So, those of you who voted for change in March 8, 2008 – get out there and scream your rights and fight to skew decisions to your benefit.
Want that park cleaned? Call your representative. Take a broom. Call your neighbors.
Want to get rid of potholes? Call your representative. Find out whose in charge. File complaints.
Don’t sit back on your sofa. Get rid of it.
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while it’s true that us as the citizens need to be mroe proactive about our roles in this new “democracy”, your statement about “when there’s less corruption,there’s more work for us citizen”, is nothing but a flawed opinion.
more work = more proactive
less work = less proactive
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