You can make the difference

Some years ago, I had dinner with some friends whom I have not met for some years since we left school. It was a very memorable meeting indeed. We talked about good old days and adventures we had during our younger days. The conversation flows to the present and many local issues were raised including expectation from the government of the day. Complaints and criticism on what ought to be done and what ought not are part and parcel of the discussions.

After listening a while I asked, “Since most of us are so concern on the well-being of the country, other than keep on complaining, can we play a role in determining the government we want”. “How many of us here are registered voters, I queried?” Surprisingly, about half of them have not registered as voters. Various reasons were offered for not being a registered voter including their vote will not make the difference. I told them if we are not even bother to use our vote, forget about whining and complaining.

Each and every vote counts. Ask the people in Kemuning, Kelantan. In the 2004 election for the state seat, the winner was decided by a majority of only two votes. Just imagine, the two votes might come from a husband and wife supporter of the winning candidate. Who knows, the winning candidate for the state seat of Subang Jaya might win with only one vote and the one vote might come from a patient of SJMC who insists on utilizing his/her right as a citizen of this country.

Sounds far-fetched? Not really. It did occurred but the incident was in a small town in USA many years ago. One patient who was hospitalized in the local hospital was adamant and insists that the doctors allowed him to go to the polling station to cast his vote. At the end of the day, the candidate that he voted for was elected with one-vote majority!

Who says one vote can’t make the difference?

In Search of Yang Berkhidmat?

As a citizen of this country, participating in the electoral process has been a duty for me since I qualified to do so. I first voted in the Klang constituency. After I shifted to Subang Jaya, I tried to change my voting residence address after the 1995 election but my name was transferred to the Kapar voters’ registry instead. I voted there for the 1999 election. I managed to change my voting address to Subang Jaya in time for the 2004 general election.

So, as a registered voter since 1990, I have voted in three different parliamentary constituencies, namely Klang, Kapar and now Kelana Jaya.

As a resident of Subang Jaya since mid 1990s, I was able to cross the ballot paper for my area YB only once, which is in 2004. Lee Hwa Beng won unopposed for the Subang Jaya state seat due to rejection of his opponent’s nomination form due to technicality. Loh Seng Kok won the parliamentary seat of Kelana Jaya with a huge majority, beating a prominent trade unionist.

Fast forward to 2008. I will be exercising my right again as a citizen of this country and this time I will be courted by 5 aspirants YB’s although one of them already enjoyed the YB status for the last 13 years.

The last election was quite an easy choice for me to make, as I am familiar with one of the candidate performance since my many years ago. My choice was proven a wise decision indeed as the candidate that I voted for live to the mark as an exemplary parliamentarian. He spoke for many of us, even to the extend of voicing out issues that his other backbencher club members dare not touch. He was even praised by the PM and his party boss for his performance as an MP. How many of our MP’s actually have a 100% attendance for parliamentary sessions. There are only four during last parliament and Loh Seng Kok was one of them.

But at last, Loh Seng Kok is not a candidate this time around even though he is still young and a full time exemplary politician. But at least he played a major role in the making of Kelana Jaya history. Looks like I need to do my homework again to search and vote for the candidate most compatible to our needs and expectation. The first thing to do is to cross check them with the Candidates Compatibility Checklist and see how all these aspiring YBs in my constituency will fare.
Which candidate in Kelana Jaya and Subang Jaya able to convince me to vote for them? I will decide when I crossed the ballots on March 8.