Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Phantom voters emancipated?

I saw it announced on the 8 o'clock news and here's what was reported from The Star:


EC cancels use of indelible ink

PUTRAJAYA: The Election Commission has cancelled the use of indelible ink in polling this Saturday, citing public order and security reasons.

Its chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said following a meeting held Tuesday, the EC was obliged to make a firm and final decision to ensure the smooth conduct of the 12th general election.

He said provisions to the law needed if the ink was to be used still could not affect the constitutional right of a voter to cast his vote, even a person whose fingernail had been marked with indelible ink or one who refuses to have his or her fingernail marked this way.

"From a practical point of view, the issuance of a ballot paper to such a voter would render the EC's proposal meaningless and will not bring about a positive result, whilst having the potential to create misunderstanding as well as altercations and arguments at polling stations," he said.

The Federal Constitution gives you the right to vote, and a black mark on your fingernail should not bar you from exercising this right, he said.

Abdul Rashid said there were also reports made to the police confirming that certain irresponsible quarters had purchased indelible ink from abroad with the intention of creating confusion and suspicion as to the status of voters.

"The EC views these issues seriously as the election process and public order and security cannot be compromised," he said.

The use of indelible ink was first proposed last June to safeguard against multiple or phantom voting. Abdul Rashid then said that the system would be subject to amendments to the Election (Conduct of Election) Regulation 1981.

He said indelible ink had been chosen over other measures, such as a biometric system working off the MyKad (chip-based identity card carried by all Malaysians above the age of 12) because such such smartcard readers would have cost about RM60,000 each, and every voting stream would have to be equipped with one. Using such a system would have cost in excess of RM30mil. The commission bought about 47,000 bottles of the indelible ink, manufactured in India, for RM2mil.

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Pray tell me what are they thinking? As observant as I am, and a peace-loving muslim, I do not go for any political parties, but I hope to see more of us malaysians with "pure" intentions for the sake of the nation's welfare, peace, security and prosperity. In other words, I look for the qualities and the characters of the candidates and not so much on their party. To me, party taasub (fanatical) is not my thing. On top of that, it kinda gets a bit too predictable and corny the way campaigning is progressing. To a certain extent of making me nak muntah, or dalam bahasa kuno yet lebih intelektual: AD NAUSEAM!


Oh well, lets paint our nails then. But I dont do red, blue, or green ones! All i have are the silver and the magnolia-french manicure colour. Which makes me a neutral. Bothered!


And WHAT may I ask, the kind of person chosen to be the candidate that even the less educated ones gets to fight for the seat in this millenia era?


And by the way, even if they say that Malaysia is the only country that still have racial based political parties, well, have u not heard of Shiv Sena and BJP in India and BNP in England to say but a few examples of racist, nationalist, religion fanatics, even tribal based parties?

But I like to add a quote I obtained from my friend, AA's facebook side: "A leader/politician is like a diaper, it needs to be changed regularly".


At least now I know where have my bonus gone to seeing the regular TV campaign ads. Whatever for the good cause, or should i just sleep on it? Have a go at Barisan Nasional main campaign page here and click on those BN in Action on the right column. It comes in English and Malay language medium.


I better look for the Phantom of the Opera movie. That machoman Gerard Butler's in it! Drooollllllsssss....Tak pon, that 300 movie, Gerard Butler teaming up with Rodrigo Santoro....double drooollsssssssss.....so much better than worrying about my 1st time experience of voting this coming Saturday. So they say, there is always a first time for everything. Yet I am getting less and less anxious of which party gonna win, who's losing the majority votes, who is gonna hang him/herself in shame and who's disappearing from the political scene for ever.

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Photo: Bradford Uni, Leeds Uni, Sheffield Uni and Newcastle Uni first degree graduates



We had our first ever ReUnioN party, 12 years after our first year of our chemical engineering bachelor degree last Saturday, 01 March 2008. Shawal (the lady second from the right, a chemical engineering lecturer in UiTM) acted as the host as we had our high tea party at her house in Shah Alam. Although only a quarter of us made it to the reunion, it was a head start that will initiate more gatherings like this in the future.


Speaking of the people in the photo above, four are in the academic lines; 2 with a PhD Degree and another 2 are pursuing their PhD, another four are engineers and 1 is in the R&D in MARDI. The man and the woman in the third right are the husband and wife to our friends. Three of us are not married yet, and that includes moi. The rest are either with 1 kid or more. One of us is yet to have a child but he and his wife are happily married for 2 years.




May we all continue to achieve more success in our life and may our friendship and silaturraheem remain blossoming for many more years to come, ameen.


10 comments:

Lee said...

Hello Manal, enjoyed reading your this post and 'indelible ink'?
Here at polling stations, we use pencils as provided.
Only problem? Pencil or marker pen hilang, ha ha.
When we go to vote, after checking our voter's list, we are given a pencil, then go into polling booth, mark an 'X', then return the folded voting paper AND the pencil. Ha ha.

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.
Ronald Reagan.

Nice pic you have there, so many intellectuals together over dinner.
I wonder what the conversation was like? Not Einstein's theory of relativity? Ha ha.
You have a nice day, Manal, Lee.

ManaL said...

Uncle Lee,

How many times have u voted in malaysia before if you care to share with us.

Speaking about american presidents, i still remember that funny incident involving the ballot recount when bush was up against gore. Bush won by just a few hundreds. Marginal win but mass destruction effect....

Naahhh...I am afraid I had to spoil your impression on us as we talked about food, reminiscing time, pretty much normal stuff, but we laughed a lot, teased each other a lot, and that was one of those times when i can just let meself lose.

But we spoke of some serious stuff too only to laugh at one of the dudes who has a pair of male boobs to go ask him to get a mammogram!

Typhoon Sue said...

i did not vote at the last election so I can assure you that I DID NOT elect this government.

But I will definitely, without a doubt, vote this time around.

The last election I voted at, (TDM's time- the Reformasi time), they gave us pencils, not pen and definitely not markers, to pangkah the ballot paper. PENCILS???? My friend who was a volunteer at PWTC for the ballot counting related her experiences seing ballot papers with pencil marks erased. No prize for guessing whose pangkah it was for that was erased. Also, many of the ballot boxes arrived at the ballot counting place, already unlocked. So HOW???

Lee said...

Hi Manal, if I remember I voted twice those days.
Voted under that sailing boat banner, ha ha.
But we sure had some good PM's from Tunku, Razak, Hussein Onn, and Dr M.
Only not familiar with present PM.
Here, every local or federal elections, I get invited to be a polling officer, dapat $150 to $200 for a day's work. Ha ha.
By the way, you go for yearly medical full check up?
It was a friend here, he lost his wife, she and me grew up together same neighbourhood in KL two years ago thru cancer, his call to invite me for dinner chat reminded me of Donna's story.
Yes, I bet you guys had fun at that dinner party, no high tech talk, huh?
You have a nice evening. Still snowing like crazy now, 7.15am Thursday, you 8.15pm. What's the colour of grass? Ha ha. Lee.

ManaL said...

Sue,

Pensel tekan ke pensel 2B? memang vavi kan? May those yang gatal tangan main erase2 public voters get gatal2 on their hands for the whole ruling term!

ManaL said...

Uncle Lee,

The current political scene revolves around the romantic relationship between a father inlaw and his one and only dearest son-inlaw. They have created a strong symbiotic bond that looks to be permanent for the sake of the daughter. There u go.

I read about Donna story. Yupp health is the most important thing ever. I usually do the normal checkup but maybe i will go do my own overall medical check up this year for my own health. Thanks for the reminder!

Siti Khadijah said...

Dear Manal,

Saw this joke today

1. Rule of Law

2. Rule by Son-in-law.........

Guess which reflects Malaysia....

The Pisces Man said...

Hmmmm.. how easily they wasted RM2million just like that, that's our money!!! And how about hidden costs...?

This is the 2nd time for me to vote. But the 1st time where I feel very emotional about it. I really want to see those corrupted and greedy politicians crumble to the ground and eat dirt.

You know, in the past, those who lose the majority votes, didn't actually end up hang him/herself in shame and disappear from the political scene altogether. In fact, some of them still being appointed as cabinet ministers.
What a 'shame' - the rejected ones still got to represent us..

On the photo subject, is there a person named Amru in it (the most right one)? He kinda' looks like him...

ManaL said...

Madam Curi,

Even if the jokes were told on a loud speaker, i think he will just sleep on it...or just sleep.

ManaL said...

Pisces man,

That my friend is probably part of the game called: hide and seek. They hide till the last count of 10 and then their boss will go seek them one by one. Or perhaps, they r just bunch of lonely loaded boys. Or attention seekers congenital. But that surely defeat the voting purpose if they already know who to be what n so on. Oh well, how about u try joining these political parties and share with us some insight. The way i see it, their "cruel intentions" might just rub on u the longer u mix with them.

Yes, that is Amru.