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

By RAPHAEL WONG

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.