What the heck are you competing for?

This is not what I had in mind. Totally none of this can happen if we had a civilised society with a very right mind.

Want to know the difference?

America's Election Campaign '08 - Super Tuesday.

Question: Do you see alot of banners?

Answer: All I see are placards (Those you can bring back home and recycle)

courtesy of AP. Hillary Clinton won quite a number of states in this Super Tuesday yesterday.

There is not one single banners going across the nation (which is like, 50 times bigger than ours hello? Or even if they have, it's only that one banner big enough. Still trying to find pictures to prove it.) to ensure the candidate had the exposure. Because they receive adequate exposures on television, participating in debates, engaging in their own ideology to ensure they will collect all those votes and, in time, in this November, vote for who is the biggest winner of America. I understand they DO need a few months for their campaign because the United States of America does cover a lot of land.

Enough of presidential talk. There are a lot of chances to talk about those. Now, lets go to Malaysia's Election Campaign '08

Question: How many kinds of banners do you see?

(Photos courtesy of Kenny Sia, Jeff Ooi and Nigel. I know. I steal them from you guys. Sorry. Sue me if you want for copyright infringement. I needed proof mah)

See? How annoying. And these pictures weren't the worse. I have seen those near my university (which is near Petaling Jaya Selatan). These big ones are not the worse. The WORST, are those tiny buntings that you see everytime you passed by any road, or those big posters found in any roundabout possible. I passed by all those driving for almost 2 weeks. At first it's exciting as the elections were all about the new candidates. Publicity stunts through talks, or what they like to call "ceramahs". It seems exciting at some point. But seriously, if I face that same face, same poster in EVERY SINGLE CORNER AND ROUNDABOUT I TURN TO. I puke first before I can even vote. What a waste of money to turn people off poll stations. Seriously.

(Disclaimer: before I can continue on, let me just get this straight, call me a whiner if you have to, but I am only 20 years old. Had I been born earlier or the Election was held later, I would vote. So please do not leave comments like I'm baseless or all talk no action)

But what happens when things get really really nasty, and starts to attack each other personally?

like this:

Or this:

Or even this:

(I know the last picture was supposed to be funny. But isn't this vandalism at some point on the icon of Kuching? Imagine if Barisan Nasional and DAP or PKR or PAS put one flag each at the Twin Towers. Do you think that's funny?)

(Photos again courtesy to Kenny Sia, Teresa Kok and me. I took some of the pictures. Won't tell you which one.)

Do you want to know what I call this?

A fucking waste of money.

Why are the political parties putting all sorts of banners across the nation filled with only their logos and going around hammering the nation to vote for them? What good will it do? Are we that shallow-minded that graphic appeal matters so much?

Why is it that no one would step up and say "hey, screw the graphics and focus on empowering the nation with RATIONAL policies to convince them that words can also do a difference"?

If you don't believe in the mainstream media, where it was already splashed with TV commercials, Radio ads, banners, print ads, all about Barisan Nasional, you can always check out blogs, good ones too. They might not all be from the Opposition, although the Opposition does use the Internet to their advantage unlike BN.

But what do I see in political blogs and mainstream media nowadays?

Media: BN hammering Opposition

Political blogs: Opposition hammering BN.

Damn it! STOP HAMMERING EACH OTHER AND PLEASE TRY TO MAKE A REAL PLAN OUT OF SOMETHING FOR MALAYSIANS TO SEE CAN OR NOT?

I used to be really impressed with the plans of the Opposition. Because I can see that when they try, they could make a difference. Because they have fielded in those who are really professionals in regards of economy, sociology, IT, etc, these fields that needs alot of boosting and planning to ensure that Malaysia had truly achieved the development they wanted. But unfortunately, these "professionals" are now trying to make an impression to the folks at some towns, but still needed to update their blogs. Really feel impressed by their hard work. But at the same time, I wondered about something.

What are you guys trying to show here?

What are you guys competing for?

Are you competing against each other and let the audience see some shows and let them decide themselves who to vote?

Are you competing to just impress voters?

Look at the other countries, where would they need to use so much banners and cover the whole town with it? Just so that they'll reminded to vote whoever's in their constituency?

Whatever happen to the power of debate? Isn't that what we wanted to hear? That we can listen, with our own ears, what have the candidates, which are YOU GUYS, have in mind?

The Opposition had been trying always to invite a debate from the BN, but it's always rejected, because they don't feel the need of it. Reason was so simple: "Look at our progress, look at yours. sux2bu :("

Really? What kind of progress did you do? Those personal attacks against the parties counted? Those sexist ones? (even if they had taken it down we'll never forget this episode) Progress of Malaysia? Really? Then why do we keep hearing accusations of corruptions and misuse of rakyat's money?

What about those news about injustices and meddlings of religion? People, Sharlini is not found yet. By now she could have died or brought to another country, and you were all busy trying to maintain some kind of peace because you were worried about some hacker that hacks into the political system that is already biased and giving a ground advantage to the major political party?

And don't get me hammering on the indelible ink scam. I feel SICK just looking at that piece of shit news!

The Opposition was no better. Sure, Tony Pua had provided really relevant insight s into the Economy, same for Jeff Ooi for the Technology part (Thank god wei, I didn't know there were so many scams just involving the handphones itself), but now as they are going out for the talks, leaving the blogs behind, who else can do the same kind of research as they can? Who?

I don't know if the Opposition meant to play the BN game, fighting over numbers of banners, numbers of voters, numbers of ceramahs, all numbers! All numbers, all only about quantities. But has anyone touch about quality other than the same kind of promises we had been listening for so many years? Can anyone actually ensure that Malaysia will be in safe hands regardless of who wins? Can ANYONE tell me?

If you can, then answer these question:

What the heck are you competing for? Only the seats? Then what?

Do you need to compete like this if Malaysians do know how to think?

I really want to know. Because I feel sad as a Malaysian, that this is how we play the democratic game. It is not a nice game that involves our wellbeing, future and money. Not nice at all.

Hopefully, someone can answer

Hopefully.