Malaysian will be voting on the March 8, 2008 for the 12th Parliamentary Elections. In the state of Sarawak, which saw a few 'hot seats' particularly in the Chinese dominated constituency, there is a bit of concern from both sides. Last week, I went to see one of my former MBA graduates who is a staunch member of SUPP (Sarawak United People's Party). In all these years I have seen the hard work, effort and many hours of sacrifice put in by Mr. Lu Kim Yong. As a Grandfather, he still took up his MBA which he completed a few years ago and make good use of it to raise funds for schools, temples and associations. These are solid performances that cannot be denied or scoff easily, because you see temples being built and standing there, schools being repaired and associations functions being runned. All these cost MONEY and these men and women went out of their way to make it happen. I can appreciate those efforts and can understand their frustrations when they are denied the votes. Now before the March 8, 2008, let us put our thinking caps on and use it really, really well for once and not let the heart rules.
I called this theory 'relations politics', something I learned from 'relations marketing'. Let's take the case, where you are approached by a number of sales people. They are all selling the same product, same quality, same service and same price. Which sales person would you buy from?
You would buy it from the person you know or the sales person who you have relationship with.
Take another example, in the family, would you as head of the family give priority to help your family members or your enemies first? Of course, your own family members.
Right, now, we take the case of the Barisan Nasional. The concept of Barisan Nasional is a family concept, making up of different parties that have agreed to work as a team. This is an eastern value and has proven to be workable and enduring. This is team work versus groups. Groups are being used by the oppositions, which is why they still got problems with the alliance pacts.
Right, we now go back to Bandar Kuching Constituency, which is a straight fights between new comer Alan Sim Yaw Yen (BN) and veteran Chong Chieng Jen(DAP).
Come March 12, 2008, the day SPM and STPM results are released, " who do you go to see for Public Service Department scholarship?" The people in the family of BN or the DAP? Which one do you think will give you a better chance of getting your child the scholarship?
And if your child cannot get a placement in one of the public universities, "who do you see to get your appeal across to?" One of the candidate of BN or the DAP? Which one do you think has more chances of getting your appeal heard? Who do you think has a better relations with the various government department to do the job?
When it comes to creating jobs opportunities, implementing the career open day, career counselling services and matching of skills to the markets, I have seen this being done already for several years by Alan Sim. Now, all these organising takes both money, effort and lots of time, sacrifice which Alan could well used for his own Law firm or for his family. Have you seen Alan gone down to the poor and needy and personally taking it out to go out of the way to help the needy? These are just a few examples of the good deeds.
It is all very well and easy to point out the corruptions of certain politician and say that we need an opposition candidate to debate it out in parliament. There is some truth in that thinking along that line. But it is ethically wrong to fight an innocent candidate who hasn't done any wrong yet and says that, " Hey, I need your seat to shout out at this politician in parliament!". If DAP is really keen to corner this politician and has evidence against him, then take it out in that politician's constituency and present his evidence as well as a police report or ACA complaint. It is ethically wrong to steal someone seat to voice out against another person who is in another constituency. It is sacrifice of the wrong candidate and at the expense of the candidate's supporters. It is sad to see this happening in SUPP constituency. The Chinese doesn't really know and understand what they are doing to themselves. When the Chinese schools don't get funds, the chinese youths don't get employement, the chinese women gets left out, especially single mothers in the entrepreneurship opportunities, who are we going to blame? Are you going to blame Alan Sim who wasn't given a chance or are you going to blame DAP? I think each and everyone of us need to do some deep soul searching and ask ourselves this question, 'Who can do the job better, the people with relations in BN or the opposition?' And will raising issues on who is doing cronyism, corruptions, help my case of putting food on the table for my family, education for my children which I can ill afford, or the health of my old parents? For this coming March 8, 2008. I urge you to vote with your brains, not with your heart, because the heart always has sympathy for the oppositions.