My Political Awakening

Well, the thing is, I've got tons of work to do tonight: Press release, media invite, briefing book and the list goes on.

Yes, all to be completed tonight but I thought I’ll just take a break from all this madness to voice out what is on my mind now.  

You know, I've been thinking about it since yesterday and I just want to use this platform, this medium, to document my thoughts.

Whatever I'm going to say here is solely based on my opinion and my experience, you can choose to agree or disagree but at the end of the day, we all have our own analyses, our own views on stuff that are happening around us, so there’s really no need to debate here.

The truth is, I was never into politics. I don’t even have a lot of general knowledge of the country (yes, shame on me, I know!). If we were to do a pop quiz on “Name the Ministers & Deputy Ministers of Malaysia”, I can tell you for sure that I would FAIL to the MAX!

I’m one of those guilty for not knowing enough of what’s happening in our country, not giving a damn about national issues because all I cared about was to climb that corporate ladder, earn extra bucks to buy that new Marc Jacobs bag and yeah, that’s all I know! Why should I worry who would be the next PM, which party would win the next GE when I’m already in my comfort zone now?

I think my conscience hit me when I saw how united and connected Malaysians were during Bersih 2.0. El Sen came home, telling me what he experienced and saw during the rally as a journalist. I was fascinated by his stories. I was proud of him for going through so much just to bring timely and comprehensive news report to us. Images of police firing tear gas and chemical-laced water didn’t scare me at all. In fact, it touches my heart that many Malaysians, young and old were willing to face such a hurdle, just to get their voices heard - Clean and Fair Elections (although I would not deny the fact that there are also some people who protest just for the sake of protesting).

At that time, I begin to question myself, what about me? What have I done for my country for the past 25 years? Do I even love my country enough to do anything? Just to also share with you, I did Form 6 and took STPM (for those who don’t know, STPM is deemed as "the hardest exam in the world"). I took STPM not because I’m masochistic but because I know it would cost a bomb to study in private uni (in which, in the end, I did).

So you must be very curious, for a diva (or should I say rockstar :P) and lazy worm like me, how would I fare in STPM? I scored a CGPA of 3.75! TA-DAH! I’m actually quite proud of myself, if it’s not because I didn’t do well in Economics… oh well, mass comm students generally can’t count anyway. With high hopes, I applied to study mass comm in public uni. I was telling myself, come on, with a CGPA of 3.75, it can’t be that hard, I’m not even asking to do law. I was quite confident that I’ll be granted that simple wish. BUT hell no! I was just offered to study TESL (Teaching English as Second Language) and NO MORE!

Disappointed? Yeah, kinda because I heard a Malay friend of mine get to study mass comm in public uni with a CGPA of 2.++ (can’t remember the exact score she got). Well, to be honest, I wasn’t too upset about it, I wasn’t even surprised because I heard of situations like this long time ago. The bright side is that, I get to study in private uni of my choice and I thanked God and my dad for paying for my tuition fee. I had an amazing experience and I got to know a bunch of good friends which some of them are now my colleagues!

What I’m trying to say is that, I was lucky. I had a choice, an alternative. I get to study private uni, I get to study the course of my choice. How about those people with a similar fate such as mine, who can’t afford the expensive tuition fees? What would they do? Just follow and study whatever courses offered to them?

I don’t want my children to suffer the same fate. Who knows if I’ll be able to afford their tuition fees next time? What if I can’t afford? So what would happen to them?

I don’t want to say that our current government sucks because I’m not entirely sure how suck they are. Yes, I read a lot of negative news report about our current government - mishandling public funds, corruption, inability to communicate sensibly and the list goes on. But who am I to condemn the government when I’m not a perfect citizen. I would not hurl negative words/ comments on anyone but I just want a change. I want to see a change, a change towards a better system, better nation.

We don’t know for sure if opposition wins, Malaysia will be better. We don’t know, no one knows. At least, we try and see. We saw how developed is Penang now ever since DAP took over.  Don’t we want to see that happen in every other states. Well, I’m not saying that it will happen for sure but don’t we want to try and do something about it, instead of just sitting here and do nothing?

Somebody once said, all that it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. If you ignore politics, you would be doing exactly that: nothing. I know I did my part as a Malaysian by going out to vote on 5^th May (thanks to my ex-boss in OgilvyPR for bringing me to register as a voter last year). Standing under hot sun for almost 3 hours was worth it.

Now we heard there’s electoral fraud, phantom voters, although I’m not sure to what extent it is, but don’t we want to find out the truth? To protect what is right and those who deserved to serve the country based on Rakyat’s votes.

I don't buy the whole message that the conspiracy theorists preach, although I would be the last to ridicule them. But having said that, I will further say this, I think we can work together (as individuals) to regain our rights and make this country what it used to be, helping the altruists and all they do. Not by fighting amongst ourselves over whether it is one big conspiracy or a lot of individuals who all think alike and therefore end up working toward the same ends. The result is the same. If we don't mount an effective defense, we lose. 

So let's work together to stop what they're doing, whether it's a conspiracy or not. And you, who have decided to opt out of the political fray, know this: If you don't get into the fight today, there will probably come a day when to join it will get you a jail sentence.

Okay, enough blabbering... now let's get back to reality and continue my never-ending work :)