DIFFICULT TO PLEASE THE CHINESE VOTERS. – PART II.

…BARISAN LOST SELANGOR IN THE 2008 ELECTIONS, NOT TO PAKATAN BUT TO VOTERS WHO DID NOT HAVE ANY CHOICE BUT TO VOTE FOR THE OTHER SIDE ALTHOUGH THEY MAY NOT WISH TO VOTE FOR PAKATAN AT ALL.
By Mansor Puteh



SELANGOR LOST TO PAKATAN IN THE 2008 GENERAL ELECTION BECAUSE FORMER ‘MENTERI BESAR’ OF THE STATE, KHIR TOYO WANTED TO TURN THE STATE INTO A SQUATTER-FREE STATE.

ACTIONS BY THE OTHER STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS ON DELINQUENT SMALL AND PETTY TRADERS HAD NOT GONE DOWN WELL WITH THOSE WHO WERE INVOLVED.

MOST OF THEM ARE THE CHINESE WITH SOME MELAYU AND INDIANS, ALL OF WHOM WHO WOULD DEFINITELY NOT WANT TO VOTE FOR BARISAN LIKE THEY DID IN THE LAST GENERAL ELECTION AS WELL AS SOME OF THE BY-ELECTIONS EVEN IF THEY WERE GIVEN FINANCIAL AID DURING THE CAMPAIGNING.

But most of all, some of the hot-blooded Umno old and new geeks did not know the ground too well to realize they were not the best qualified persons in the country with their deplorable academic backgrounds and ‘track records’ of not doing much other than to talk the talk. They are Umno’s and Barisan’s worst enemies.

Some of the old leaders of Barisan didn’t realize they could get re-elected in their party elections but what they did not realize is how they could be trounced so easily by their non-members, who are the voters.

So this explains why many of the ‘old goats’ in Barisan were trounced including Samy Vellu.

This also means it’s no point in being elected to high office in the MIC or the other parties in the Barisan coalition, if one cannot get similar support from the voters who are mostly non-Indians.

MIC candidates face insurmountable odds because they have to seek supporters from the non-Indians in general and by-elections, so they cannot talk too much about their own interests of those of their party, since they are basically dependent on the support of the other communities, with the Indians not having any constituency that has Indian majority to talk about.

And those with Chinese majority are slowly being eroded so much so in the years to come, there won’t be any Chinese majority area to talk about even in the city centers which were once the exclave domains of this community.

There are many voters amongst those who were affected in the raids on illegal small and petty trading as well as those who operate other illegal activities.

We see them on the news almost every night and every week on other crime programs. All these created a negative effect on the minds of the Chinese and some other Melayu and Indians who feel affinity with the brethren who are affected by such actions, which are good for the country but not for them personally, despite them to be legal and legitimate.

Many people are in such businesses which are illegal in nature because this is all that they can do given their poor academic qualification dropping out of school so early in their lives.

Most of them, unfortunately, are those who studied in the vernacular Mandarin and Tamil schools who can’t speak much Melayu.

They work as small and petty traders doing all sorts of businesses and driving taxis, which often find themselves on the other side of the law.

How on earth could these taxi-drivers who do not speak or write in Melayu well get their driving licenses in the first place?

It is not easy to pass the written test, because the level of Melayu used is not for those who have vernacular school backgrounds, whose understanding of the language is not high.

Even the uneducated Melayu could not understand much about what is asked of them in the written tests.

Trying to keep the cities and countries in order may be good for the many others, but not for those who are dependent on the illegal businesses with their premises which are often located at wrong places and they not having the proper permits, and engaging illegal workers.

Just how many illegal factories are there in Selangor alone! They are mostly operated by the Chinese who are not well-educated. They employ illegal workers from abroad for years without being harassed.

Occasionally some of them were rounded. And they will never find it good to vote for the government in any election, not because the government is bad, but because they had never been told to be appreciative of the law, because of them not knowing much about the law in the first place.

And most of them are the Chinese who have vernacular Mandarin school backgrounds, who drop out of school at standard six or form three.

They do not have much education and who are involved in petty and small businesses including the illegal ones.

And they are many of them.

And how can the government expect them to be supportive of them when their businesses are often the centers of raids by the local authorities?

Will those who operate illegal factories and employing foreign workers without getting the work permits and who also often flout the laws want to support the government? They will be amongst those who will vote for the opposition, especially if their businesses are affected.

And what about those Chinese who operate makeshift stalls that offer counterfeit discs and those who manufacture them?

There are also those Chinese who are involved in many other illegal businesses such as prostitution, human trafficking and what not. The number is fairly large.

And each time there is a raid by the local authorities or law enforcement officers on the premises where they operate, the government loses votes.

The number of Chinese who are involved in illegal activities is large. They can become substantial especially if they vote en masse for the opposition, not that they like the opposition. It’s just that they hate the government a lot more.

So no matter what the government does and promises, this group of Chinese voters will vote the opposition.

In fact, there are also many Melayu small and petty traders who are like the Chinese, who operate their businesses illegally or who flout the law.

And they are also good candidates for voters of the opposition because this is the only way for them to vent their anger at the authorities for giving them such a hard time.

Malaysian voters tend to be too selfish; they think only of themselves and their personal well-being. They vote according to how much the authorities do not punish them for operating illegal activities.

Even if the local authorities and law enforcement officers do not conduct raids on the illegal activities of the errant traders and businesses when there is about to be an election or especially during the election campaign, those voters who were affected will still vent their anger at the government and who will cast their votes against them.

So this explains no matter what the government does and offers them during the campaigning period, there will still be a large number of the voters who will vote for the opposition.

It’s not that they like the opposition; it’s just that they did not have any choice but to vote for them, even when the opposition does not conduct any serious campaigning or offering goodies to them.

There must be a way for the government not to allow this situation to happen, whereby a voter had to vote for the opposition simply because they are not happy with the candidates Barisan had given them.

There is no choice at all, if they do not like the particular candidate; they have to vote the opposition.

There are many voters who refrained from voting anyone if he did not think the Barisan candidate did not deserve to get his vote.

But there are many others who voted the opposition because the voting papers say you have to vote somehow.

In other words, most of those who had voted the opposition may not necessary wanted to do so, but since they had no choice they had to cast their votes to them anyway.

Many of the senior Barisan leaders especially do not realize that they may go on to win in their party elections, but they must also remember that the real support from them do not only come from their party members but the others too especially.

And it was in the last general elections which saw many of the more senior ones being trounced from their constituencies simply because they were not favored by the voters.

This explains why many MIC, MCA and even Umno candidates lost in the last general elections because the voters of the other races did not vote them in.

So one may be the president of MIC or MCA, but the voters in any general election comprise of members from the other communities who may not like the behavior or attitude of these leaders.

Comments

mariategui said…
they want champangne breakfast for everyone