Yes. They can, indeed.
Posts Tagged ‘elections’
History in the making…
Heading to the polls. That’s my mum and dad walking up front.
The streets were all dressed up for the occasion.
The opposition, who went on to win on our watch.
Where all the action took place… for this constituency, anyway.
Look at all the people queueing under the sun! Polling was split into streams according to age groups, and the queues for the oldest demographics were also the longest! It gave me hope – that they who have seen so much more than I (and who should be so much more cynical but are not), still believe in their right to vote and the power it can wield for change.
And change happened.
These are just two random articles. Do click around for more.
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Sign that I am getting old #7
I am voluntarily getting up at 8am on a Saturday morning… so I can cast my vote before the crowd gets in. Typing it out hasn’t made it any more believable, especially when I know the polls are open till 5pm. But I will be getting up, and I will be going to the polls, and I will be casting my vote for the very first time.
Why? Because:
1. I try almost everything at least once, and I want to know what it’s like to vote in a general election.
2. I want to know I contributed, did my part, fulfilled my right and carried out my duty as a citizen. Even though some people say my one vote won’t make a difference; I want to know I tried.
3. Because I yak too much about Barack Obama, government screw-ups and politics in general to pass up on my one chance to walk the talk.
I have been greatly encouraged by the boys, whose efforts and involvement make my feeble attempt to give an hour (or less) of my time drawing X’s on a piece of paper look like a mini chocolate eclair next to the biggest chocolate fountain in the world. While I do not undermine the importance of my vote, it is they who have been attending the ceramahs, who are unrestrainedly giving of their passion, time and energy, who continue to hold on to the belief that we can indeed make a difference, that deserve the credit.
I am determined to do my part, yet the cynic in me wonders if light will penetrate the dark side. Or if there is even light to be found at all. I’m sure there must be. Surely. Are we so far gone down the stormwater drain that nothing will bring us back? Are we doomed to be like this forever and ever? How can these people hold on so unswervingly to hope election after election after election? And you would think all that listening to Obama (hope, change, yes we can…) would have rubbed off on me somewhat.
My mother-in-law commented that she never expected my generation to become as politically-aware and active as we have been seeing and hearing. Not my generation, she said, maybe in a couple more. But the time has come sooner than she thought it would. Listening to the boys after yet another ceramah or training session for polling agents is inspiring stuff as they talk about the turnout of volunteers, about the young people who are coming forward, about their determination to do what they can. Is it enough? Is the alternative to evil really good, or simply evil in another face and form? Will we succeed in picking the lesser of two evils?
I don’t remember the last general election – I was in Australia – and I don’t remember the last time I was in Malaysia when there was a general election. But this one feels different. Maybe because I am now more aware, maybe because all that Obama talk is fueling the excitement in my own backyard, or maybe, definitely(?), because I am getting old enough to care. That makes sign #8.
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Democratic candidates, anyone?
So I’ve been keeping an occasionally straying eye on the Democratic Presidential race over in the US of A. If that, indeed, is what it’s called. Basically, the Democratic party will be electing someone to run for President, and right now, it’s down to Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. What makes this one super interesting is the fact that the American people, or at least, the Democratic Americans, will now have to choose: a white woman, a black man, or a white man who really isn’t doing a very good job of keeping up with his counterparts in terms of popularity, prominence and general image.
See, before, I would say that the white man would be a shoo-in. I don’t think America is ready for a black man to be their President, nor are they ready to have a woman lead them into the many wars they so like to wage.
Of course, wanting to avoid those wars might be the very reason they vote Hilary – women may (generally) be pettier, sneakier and bitchier, but as mothers and the more compassionate species, they are also less likely to send thousands of sons and daughters into a foreign land wielding machine guns and what-not. Her hubby Bill, if he could only have kept his little man in his pants or at the very least didn’t get caught out shagging Miss Monica, was also among the smarter of the Presidents and no doubt would be a valuable asset – the cynic in me always suspected she stayed with him for a reason; though how ironic it would be for Bill to go back to the White House and be referred to as the First Gentleman while his wife goes around eliciting respectful “Yes, Mrs. President”s.
Anyway, the race is on and it’s pretty damn intense, but what brings it up a whole new level is a report I read in the newspaper today – blogs and the online community will influence this presidential race like never before. And it shows. All three candidates have MySpace pages, some have both MySpace and Facebook pages, and you only have to do a quick scroll-through to see the extent of campaigning that is being done online. You also quickly see who’s popular and who’s not with the online crowd, and – this is inevitable – who hired the better person for the job of maintaining their pages.
It’s all here: Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards. Obama gets my vote – he’s the youngest, the most outspoken, and statistically the least likely to get nominated even though he’s so damn popular, but I have a thing about seeing blacks rising up to conquer the white world. It’s also why I like Lewis Hamilton. Plus, it’ll be uber interesting to see how Obama runs his administration and he’s frickin’ smart – check out his university credentials!
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Family First?
It’s all in the smile. And the smile was probably the only reason why neither David nor I got into too much trouble while handing out how-to-vote cards today. That is, if you don’t take into account the fact that we lost both our signs (you know, those big flimsy things with “Family First” written on it with the party logo and all), within the first hour of our shift. And lost one of our poles (for attaching signs to) an hour from the end of it.
I know, I have absolutely no idea how it happened too. And I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if David hadn’t said, “Ey, what happened to our signs?”
Come on, we were busy handing out how-to-vote cards, watching the National Union of Students Queer people chanting, “Howard is not welcome here, racist, sexist, anti-Queer”, while remembering to smile the whole time. Plus, it just didn’t dawn on us that people would take our signs in the first place. We didn’t even have a booth. It was just two signs propped against a chair.
I don’t want to point fingers, but they were hanging around our chair a lot. And they seemed to take great pleasure in observing our panicked expressions. And they were doing a lot of grinning while observing us too. I thought the Liberals could have been better booth-neighbours though. For someone who’d made a deal with Family First to support them, you think they could’ve come up with a better response to, “Did you by any chance see what happened to our signs?” than “That’s democracy for you. We thought you’d packed up and left cos you’d given up.”
That one guy annoyed me more than anyone who responded to my “Family First? (with my sweetest smile)” with “No way”, “You’ve gotta be kidding”, “Christ, no” or the dozen or so dirty looks. Of course we had funny responses as well, like “Nope. Economies first, families second.” (To which I could only think of replying with, “Nope. Families first?”); interesting responses like “We’re Christian but we’d never vote for Family First”; or the closest I got to trouble, which was this lady who came right up to me and said, “You’re the right-wing religious party, aren’t you? I just don’t understand you people.” I couldn’t think of a response in the 3 seconds before she walked off. And you’d be surprised how many fully-grown men still make noises like “blpth”.
But I did understand a teeny bit of what blacks must have felt like in 60s America when the Queer people showed up with this banner that said, “If Howard can go to bed with Family First, why can’t we have same-sex marriages” or something like that. With that in the background, and the Queer people dancing and chanting around our Family First signs (while they were still there), it took some guts (for me) to stand there and smile and say “Family First?”. We were the hated minority and I sure felt it. I’m never looking at minorities the same way again. And did I forget to mention that they actually burned our how-to-vote cards?
All that in just the first hour.
Ashley and Angie (our predecessors) warned us against nasty people, but we didn’t think it would be directed at our signs instead of us. And there I was hoping before I got there that there would be some protests or something. Just for the excitement. Me and my curiosity. I was actually thinking more towards people dressing up as rats and stuff. Though there was this bunch of people dressed as flowers and trees and butterflies who went around hand-in-hand doing what looked suspiciously like sniffing people. I’m not exaggerating.
But as you can probably tell, I had fun. Lots of it. And David and I got became pretty good at having fragmented conversations. Or, one really long conversation interspersed with “family first”s. The company really helps. All the other volunteers were pretty much working solo, which must get tough, especially when people are mean to you (which a group of guys were to a Labor volunteer). But then again, we were the youngest, the only Asians (until maybe the last 30 minutes), and the softest. Like, in terms of volume. But we had our tactics to make up for it. And I reckon we had the most fun.
Anyway, here’s David’s version for more details, including our “secret tactic”. And here’re my top 6 favourite moments of the day:
1. Ashley: “Is the chair still there?” When David called to tell him we’d lost our signs.
2. Realizing the signs were gone (which took a few minutes to sink in), and the fact that we lost them within an hour of our shift.
3. The super cute pug and bulldog puppies that some voter brought along.
4. The cute baby in a pram that smiles when you wave at him. Needless to say, all the volunteers lining the queue took turns waving.
5. The really, really cute small boy who was so happy when I handed him a how-to-vote card. You never know, he might give it to his mother.
6. The Catholic woman who wanted to vote for a Family First representative in her area so much she took the trouble to ask us for details, and then went all the way back to her area to vote even though she was already right in front of a polling station.
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Family First needs volunteers!
Continuing in my spirit of campaigning, here’s another good cause. The Family First political party needs volunteers come election day (9th October) to man booths. I don’t think there’s too much involved, badges, T-shirts, voting cards and a minimum of 4 hours on a Saturday. And that is all I know about it. But doesn’t it sound interesting already?
I’ll be honest. I signed up to help more out of curiosity than a genuine desire to teach people how to vote. (That’s my curiosity for you.) But that’s besides the point. The point is, I’m inclined to drag someone along with me and Yuchun is 2,500 Ringgit too far for me to drag him.
Besides, what with jyg‘s Annuar escapade and Badawi encounter, it’s time someone else gets political around here.
Come on, it’s for a good cause. You might never get this opportunity again.
Family First is a political party that believes in putting families erm… first. According to Chris Willis, candidate for the seat of Melbourne (if that’s how you say it), “it’s not a Christian political party, but it’s a political party with a lot of Christians in it.”
As you might have gathered, politics just isn’t my forte. And that’s what the website is for. But you have to admit, it’s starting to pique your curiosity. Come on, not even a litte? Curiosity is a good thing you know. How do you think things got invented and worlds got discovered? Because someone was curious enough to say, let’s try something new around here. Or, I wonder what happens when you put this with that and mix a bit of those in.
Okay, back to Family First. Volunteers anyone? I don’t want to man a booth alone!
