2 Ugly Durians And The Permatang Pauh By Election

Well, well, well, looks like the folks in Permatang Pauh have set us on a journey into the unknown. By electing Anwar Ibrahim back into Parliament, we should at the very least expect the opposition (with any luck they will be the ruling party soon) to be a much stronger force to be reckoned with.

I’ve been meaning to write this for a long time now, but I’ve never written a politically motivated post before. I originally wanted to title my post “Why I would vote for Anwar Ibrahim”… but being always behind time is not a good way to write anything constructive.

In any case, my reason for writing “Why I would vote for Anwar Ibrahim” was to get things off my chest. Talking to friends and acquaiantences is okay, but I figured I might as well shoot off my mouth for once about how I feel all over the Internet. Perhaps the high-and-mighty-nose-in-the-clouds people in Parliament will somehow read.

To tell you the truth, my reasons for “Why I would vote for Anwar Ibrahim” is not really because of support for him or for PKR, but because of my growing disgust with Barisan Nasional.

I can go on and on, spouting my half past six political views which can easily be shot down by a half drunken, money-power-and-sex maniac MP, so I will just state some of the things that have made me fed up of Barisan Nasional :

• Rising fuel and food prices. Ordinary folks are struggling to keep their heads above water but we see obvious mismanagement of public funds and politicians getting fat living the good life. No, not just the politicians - even people we know who are well connected are sharing in the plunder. No need to state specifics. Just look around and you will have your own story to tell.
• One particular moron ex-Minister turned unwitting porn star in particular disgusts me. After years of cheating on his wife, he dares to declare that at least has the “moral courage” to admit what he did. Yeah… so if he becomes the leader of one of the biggest parties in Malaysia, he’s telling everyone “Hey… look at me! I screwed around behind my wife’s back for years. I was caught, but heck I’m sorry… I’m still a good guy… next time round I’ll check for hidden cameras. For now, vote for ME!”. I dare say this is one of the major reasons I would vote for Anwas Ibrahim. If a senior Minister who’s fairly decent and responsible on the outside is actually is actually enjoying the “fruits” of his position, I can’t imagine the other lesser “leaders” who don’t even look half as intelligent. What kind of message are we sending to our children if such a person leads a major party in this country?
• Another ex (now dead) MP who “allegedly” built a palace without approval right in the midst of people struggling to make ends meet. This is just the kind of arrogance and greed that we hard working souls are tired of.
• A growing arrogance exists everywhere - from the management of local town councils to the administration of schools. They don’t have to say anything. Their actions scream “Hey… I work for the BN government. I can do anything I like” and they continue to rub salt in the wounded pride of hard-working folks with policies and inefficiency.
• Morons who keep shouting “ketuanan Melayu”. Look, before you go and stick voodoo pins in a doll, I love and hate Malays, Chinese and Indians equally. I believe there are as many idiotic Malays as there are Chinese and Indians. But I’m tired of having to explain to my children that there are some things that they cannot say to their friends even if it’s the truth because somewhere, somehow, there is an unwritten law that a certain race must always be protected from “sensitive” issues.

Hey BN… I was born in Malaysia. I am a living breathing Malaysian. I want EQUAL rights. After 51 years of Merdeka, we are still afraid to talk to each other openly and honestly. Now, all the feelings of frustration and hate have come to the surface and threaten to explode in another May 13.

So let me relate a small incident that tells me why this country is in the state that it’s in. An ex-colleague of mine once asked me to join the MCA. I replied that I wasn’t in the least interested in politics and I didn’t think I could serve the community. His reply?

“Hey man… you think I and all the others joined *** to serve the community? Podah man… I joined because I can make contacts with other businessmen. Now whenever there is a project, we are the first to hear of the opportunity so we get to make money. I scratch my back you scratch mine lah”

So that got me thinking… this is why Malaysia is going down the drain.

In any case, I digress. This post is titled “2 Ugly Durians And The Permatang Pauh By Election”. Here’s the reason for the unusual title.

2 nights ago, my inquisitive children Sam and Sara asked me who “Anwar Ibrahim” was. I explained who he was and why he was now in the news almost daily. I tried to explain the problems with our present government as best as I could in simple terms they could understand.

They asked me “If Anwar was in jail years ago, doesn’t that make him a bad man?”

Followed by “So, why do we want him to be a leader now?”

I almost pengsan at the question. How to answer? So the first thing that came to mind was durians. I asked them “Imagine we have 2 durians. We open one and find that it’s full of worms. The other one also looks just as ugly from the outside and everyone also says that it’s ugly, but we don’t know for sure. What do you think we should do? Should we just throw away the second one away?”

Sara, my smartie-pants 8 year old quickly said “No-lah! Why so stupid. We already know the first durian is full of worms we can throw away lah. But just because the second durian looks ugly on the outside doesn’t mean that it’s really bad on the inside. We have to open it and see for ourselves lah. Only then we will know for sure mah…”

And so my dear friends… for all my life, I have lived and tolerated a durian that grows uglier by the day and is so full of worms it has rotted to the core. I now have a choice to try another durian that may be beautiful inside although it looks just as ugly on the outside.

Life is about making decisions. And sometimes you have to take risks.

I’ve had enough of the present ugly durian called Barisan, thank you.

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