Come 18 November, citizens from this once British-y island will be casting their votes for the state district elections. Advertisements have been rolling out on TV and non-media related mediums like billboards and stuff.

Come 31 January 2008, the public poll for the proposed taxi fare increase in HK will close. Members of the public can send it their thoughts on the matter via email, some website comment page, fax or call in to a dedicated line.

Meanwhile, on 10 November 2008, Malaysia’s Prime Minister was quoted saying the following in a major English daily.

The people should reject street demonstrations and effect any change through polls, said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

…

Calling the organisers stubborn, he said: “I am disappointed. Are they trying to challenge the Government and leadership? But what they are actually challenging and casting aside is the law.

“People want the country to always be stable and peaceful and that is what they (Bersih) are challenging, not me.

“Saya pantang dicabar (I don’t take to being challenged),” he said yesterday in his winding-up speech.

This was made in reference to the BERSIH rally held on Saturday, which saw approximately 40,000 people taking to the streets peacefully, demanding for a fair and clean government. The Premier went on to suggest that people use polls instead. I wonder if his age is catching up with him? As far as I know, since I reached suffrage age, we never had a public referendum/poll organized by the government. Most of the time, it was just some opinion poll done by the media which usually ends up in the bottom of the trash bin. What I resent most of all is the fact that a group of people (or should I say just one person?) can preach democracy AND dictatorship in the same line.

Anyway, don’t you think it’s just sad that a tiny island practices more democracy than a country more than three times its size? If size is ever an issue (the whole “we are bigger so harder to govern”), then well, look at Australia – they hold city council elections and public referendums AND they are way bigger than Malaysia with less ministers.

There are so many things wrong with this place…I don’t even know where to begin. We have people who are unhappy and left with no means of communicating their unhappiness – elections are rumoured to have been rigged, the ministers and public representatives are corrupt, the polls don’t exist or just don’t reach the right people and the top man just doesn’t seem to be listening at all. So the people want to have a peaceful march but the police won’t give them a license to group together and organize a rally. That’s the shitty thing about Malaysia. You need to ask for permission to protest against anything. When they go ahead and have a rally anyway because it’s the only way to voice out their frustrations, they get sprayed at with water and tear gas, AND thrown into jail. The very next day, they find themselves being labeled as troublemakers and indirectly, traitors.

But who is the real traitor in this picture? You do the math and no, don’t tell me. Tell yourself the answer when you cast your vote in the next elections. Hopefully they aren’t rigged.

Oh…brace yourself for a fuel hike. Y’know, I wouldn’t be so pissed if the public transportation here was as efficient as the one in HK or Australia or Singapore or Switzerland or France…and maybe, even Thailand.