from a friend:
in lieu of the upcoming elections-i am in trepidation of change-is it good-is it necessary?
my subsequent email response:
i think that everyone’s afraid of change, and for many reasons. i think
that with any change of government there’s always a very difficult interim
period where the new govt tries to sort itself out in terms of governing
an entire nation, and that there are a lot of teething problems, often
manifested in horrible occurrences like riots, ethnic violence etc. we all
know that this is exactly what we don’t want–we don’t want the country
torn apart in such a way again. and i think that this is a valid concern
if the opposition wins the majority vote. not because i have no faith in
an opposition govt, but because i feel that the nation isn’t ready for
such a change yet–tensions are high, and divisions feel more concrete
than ever before.
that said, i honestly don’t think that anybody really thinks that the
opposition stands a chance to actually win in these elections. there isn’t
enough freedom of information or awareness out there for the opposition to
get their message through to most of the rakyat. so i’m not really worried
about the possibility of that kind of change.
another kind of change that i am all for, however, is a change in the
composition of parliament. currently (at least until parliament was
dissolved today), BN holds 92% of the seats in parliament, which
translates into somewhat of a dictatorship in terms of parliamentary
control and action. no matter what country you’re talking about, 92% is
kind of a ridiculous amount for a democratic country. it was a vote of
confidence in pak lah in the 2004 elections, and unfortunately, i would
say that he has betrayed this confidence and let the nation down.
what i would like to see, then, is a change in the way our government does
things. when they control so much of parliament it’s very easy for them to
get their way and pretty much do whatever they want. there aren’t enough
opposition members in parliament to force the ruling party to be
transparent in their affairs, or to ensure that the government is held
accountable for its actions/misdeeds. the only way to do this is to ensure
that they do not maintain their 92% majority, and to make sure that they
no longer have veto power (more then 2/3 seats in parliament). how can we
do this? by electing enough opposition MPs into parliament to ensure that
different voices are heard at the governmental level, and to make sure
that as many real malaysians as possible are represented in parliament.
so that’s my dua sen. you know which way i’m leaning. 
hope this wasn’t
too long and cheong hei. if you got all the way here, congratulations! now
if only my papers were this easy to write.
