Ref: http://animalcare.my/2013/05/05/please-pray-for-clean-and-fair-elections/
In my entire life, this was the first time that I attended ceramahs and dialogues because as much as I preferred to stay away from politics, enough is really enough, and I wanted to make that difference this time round. We have suffered enough and I don’t want our younger generation to suffer the same.
And although our dreams were shattered last night, all is not lost.
Now that the dust has settled, we begin to rejoice in our small victories. In our constituency, the candidates of our choice won. Not only did they win, but they won BIG. Huge! It’s all about people power, folks. The urban-dwellers have the advantage of education and “awakening”; we know what we want.
This was an urban-tsunami and the PR has won more seats in parliament. We should rejoice in this.
For the next five years now, the political parties would have to reach the rural folks and bring the awakening to them. The political parties would have to demand a cleaner electoral process and this includes looking into the delineation of constituencies (malapportionment and gerrymandering), a malpractice put in place decades ago by the powers-that-be to ensure absolute control. Without correcting this malpractice, the change that we wish to see will be delayed again in 2018. The political parties will have to work on this and we can only support them.
Meanwhile, life goes on for us ordinary folks. For the animal caregivers, the election results probably did not impact too badly on us since our voice has never been heard before this and we also did not place too much hope of being heard no matter who the government of the day is. Yes, we HOPE for more compassionate leaders, but how often will we be able to find a leader who would put the needs of the animals on par with those of the humans?
We need to be realistic here and we need to know that we are a small minority. Yet, the animals only have us. However small our voice, they depend on us to look after their needs. The animals have no say, no vote; they only have us.
We must remember this and continue taking good care of them.
Looks inwards and carry on doing what is good and right: http://animalcare.my/2013/05/06/look-inwards-and-carry-on/
Nobody can take away this right away from us.
Below, I share with you, the views of a reader who shares our passion in looking after animals. She has requested anonymity.
Really zombielike this morning. Unlike the people of S’gor we still have to go to work today despite having no sleep and dragging the tons of bricks on backs since we did not get what we most wanted – a change of establishment.
What keeps drumming in my head …..when we were up all night discussing on how all this is going to impact all of us. Hubby is making mental notes on what to brief his bosses locally and overseas on how this all going to impact their investments here – strangely but it is the voice of Cesar Milan that was in my head.. he was telling the a group brothers in the monastery … who had got a very expensive German Shepard but cannot train it to follow command..even after many recitals of prayers to St Francis of Asisi (the patron saint of animals)..Cesar merely said to the brothers…God only give us what we need, NOT what we want..simply means the Universe only give us what we need but not what we want..
It dawned on me – all is not loss. Here we got what we need a hard working incumbent who pledge to be loyal to us and be answerable to our needs – in fact he won a substantial majority compared to a tiny 100++ the last time with the other frog MP. We did not attend ceramah or talks here (non were organised here) – we were so sure of what we need a down-to-earth no airs representative – we had made up our minds for a very long time – way before nomination day. We rejoice in getting the outcome we need.
Yes, you are right we in the animal welfare world is the minority. We over here could brings all the issues of sufferings of street/strays animals to him our MP but the truth is there is nothing much he can do. It is not his jurisdiction – as our councils and all councils in this country comes under the federal government of which under the preview of the King. Councils operate and were established in the same manner of the police and the army under the King (that is why council employees have so much power and has the right to carry arms).
What our MP can do is carry out programs to facilitate animal welfare in term of educating the people under his/hers constituencies to be responsible, useful and mindful citizens and human beings. In this sense, Dr Chan, your role as an educator as role model to kindness and compassion to animals is very, very important. Lead by example and people will follow. As we are the minority we must pick and choose our battles in order to win this war of good over evil where animals are concerned.
Where animal welfare is concern nothing is going to change – we here still have to race against the council to protect street/strays animals. Still we have the heaviness in our hearts and minds when we were feeding a street animals – we feel it is going to be their last meal – we will never seen them again.. and the look they gave us when we bade our leave is so heartbreaking especially when we cannot take them home with us or send them to a safe place..this no matter what government, is not going to change for now. As long new elected government still elect imbeciles evils and the likes of him to take care of animal welfare.
The one thing that we are very happy is the the defeat of the 2 mightiest in two places – these two are causing a lot disharmony for us here and as the whole of our society and the evildoings towards dogs here in our areas and distributing of ‘evil’ leaflets. It shows that the people rejects extremity, fanatics, racist and bigots. One winner MP is an intellectual outward islamist and if you have a chance do have a chat with him on issue on animal welfare and kindness towards animals especially dogs. We are so relieved that he has won with a convincing majority.
This election is the choosing of voting of who to vote for is ‘who is the candidate is’ not ‘what the party is’ for the majority when they cast their votes especially in the non urban areas.
Kudos to you your family and people of Selangor for your choices. Things are not as bad as they seems …once the clouds have moved..there will be sunlight again.. We must go on .. keep our eyes and minds and our goals that one day this nation will be kind and compassionate towards animals and all its beings.
Congratulations again. Take care.
Kind regards.
P.S. We still cannot get the whole results of Selangor elections – Did Wong Chen win?
YES, Mr Wong Chen won with a 28,827 majority and yes, I will speak with him on the issue of animal welfare when he gives me the time to meet up.
We ask you to do the same. Speak to your elected representative, no matter which side of the political divide he/she is from. Ask for better treatment for the street animals.
We need a bigger voice for them.
Comments
3 responses to “Carrying on no matter what, Part 1 (all is not lost)”
I’m not an expert in law or history or any kind of expert, but let me try to explain why we need local council election. If I’m wrong, please correct me.
1. The need for Malaysians to get back our local council election has been talked about for a long time by the opposition, but the federal government has continued to refuse to allow it to happen. Malaysians used to have local council elections until the federal government changed the laws. It is a right that Malaysians used to have when our country was formed, but this right has been taken away. Now our local councilors are chosen by the federal government – meaning they the federal government becomes more powerful because then they can choose the people who will kow tow to the YB-YBs. So the appointed local councilors pay more attention to their boss than to the people whom he/she is suppose to serve. This is why when you complain to the council in your area about longkangs and roads and other local problems, you often meet people in power who does not seem interested in solving your problems.
2. The local council is the 3rd vote that we are suppose to have. Remember during voting time, we voted 1 for the Parliament and then 1 for the state. The Parliament vote is for us to decide about who handles the big issues for the whole country. The state vote is for us to decide who handles the big issues regarding state laws and policies (eg. land use). Then we are suppose to have one more vote – this is the vote for the person who handles problems faced by the residence of a certain small area. These people are suppose to be our grassroot leaders – the first person who hear our needs and solve the problems regarding holes on the roads, garbage not collected, strays living along our back alley, etc. During voting time, we are suppose to get 3 pieces of paper – 1 for the Parliament, 1 for the state, and 1 for your local representative.
3. The effects of not having the 3rd vote is incredible. It has led to a mess about who can have the power to solve and speak up about our day-to-day problems. And so we bug our Parliament and our state representatives to solve our longkang problems, and they will then try to connect us with certain relevant government agencies and officials, but they cannot really solve these day-to-day problems for us because (i) it’s not their work according to the law and (ii) their duties are already bloated and overloaded with their own work. So our government becomes very inefficient and ineffective. So when we want to have better policies for our residential areas, it seems that we are speaking to nobody, because nobody is really in charge, because no 3rd vote. And so we only get our roads patched up, but we never get to have better built roads. We can get someone to unclog the longkang, but we are ineffective in trying to get the government to build better drainage in our taman, etc.
4. And another terrible effect of losing our 3rd vote is that the federal and state government gets misinformation or lack of information about issues that get us angry and upset in our daily lives. Why? Simple. When you rely on the man/woman you appoint, that person will try to give you reports and feedback that YOU want to hear in order to keep his/her job and later get a promotion. Bad news about angry neighbours get filtered out and our leaders only get a diluted and deluded version of what is actually happening on the ground.
So it’s not about supporting opposition or barisan or anything like that. It’s about getting back our power to choose our own local community leaders who are empowered to change our daily lives for the better. It’s about our fight for a better life in our neighbourhood and for our future children who are going to live in this neighbourhood.
That’s all. It’s very simple really.
I was told that the federal gov has to reintroduce the local council elections. We need a federal gov that supports this. Unfortunately, we don’t have it this round.
Yes, it’s the work of the federal government to bring back local council elections, because according to the laws of the land, the authority to make such nation-wide changes belongs to them. All is not lost because we can “remind” the current authorities and voters about the importance of the local council election. Talk to “normal” people and they will go “Eh? What?” Their impression is that it’s the job of the elected Parliament/state member. Only among the old generation who were active during the 1950s and 1960s who can remember how it was like to have local elections.