Elections 2006: How Low?

Election Fever Heats Up

It has been a great week! I have to apologise to those readers who were expecting updates on the elctions in Sarawak from me. During the capaign week too much has been going on. Both directly and indirectly. Of course the Department where I work is quite up to the nose with the Ninth Malaysia Plans as the 'Capital' or 'Modal' for the candidates who are standing on the Barsian Nasional ticket. Its banking on the hypothesis that 'People Wants Development'. During the course of the campaign, it may sell or not sell, so we will see how it goes.

One thing I really like during the campaign is the way the candidtaes for N. 9 Padungan area try to outdo each other. Posters that counterattack one another were quite evident as some of the posters seems to be coming up one after the other with different (attacking one another) messages. Its sort of a Roadside Debate. Everyday you would want to pass the roundabout near the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank to look at the different posters that seem to appear on top of one another. I will try to get it later and update this page - basically I have problem in understanding what it means as the posters are in Chinese.

However one of the let down of the campaign was that the newspapers did not seem to give a fair coverage for the opposition. I do not know if that is intentional or not. It is as if the news and pictures that published are all for the Barsian Nasional candidates. I am complaining because I had expected that the newspapers and journalists (maybe editors) should not treat their readers like kids and censor what they may feel is not worth printing. There was this page on the Ninth Malaysia Plan that we prepared recently and then there was the a detailed information of all the Barisan Nasional Candidates. Okay, that's good and I was hoping what the opposition had presented what they would want to to throw in, including the issues. Its part of the democratic process.



I beleieve the Eastern Times (16th May 2006 Edition) put themselves at the lowest possible status in the field of journalism with thier reporting on Datuk Seri Anwar's arrival in Kuching. I would have expected that this type of rubbish should not have made it to the front page but by what manner, it did. Perhaps ET wishes to win some favours from some higher powers? Maybe they are losing to Borneo Posts in terms of publication copies? Anyway they are just two months old...maybe the Editors who decided that this should go in the front page are just showing people how silly they are. Well its trash for me and though the other materials in ET are good and readable I have vowed never to subscribe to Eastern Times for I would not want my family to hold and read trash.

In the wars of Campaign Slogans I picked up from the posters, the DAP's loud banner 'If BN Wins, the price of oil will go up'. 'BN Drive Expensive Cars' don' work with me. If fact it confuses me more. The price of cooking gas costs RM170 in Bakelalan and ours here in Kuching City is only RM25. The Bakelalan folks are not complaining.... But I like the part which says, "Barisan's Unchecked Development Hurts", which may sell to fence sitting voters who feel that having some opposition members in the Dewan Undangan Negeri may be appropriate to check any abuses. Chan Seng Khai's "For A Better Homeland" sounds okay, though I would like to see it explained better in the posters. Here I am in Kuching living through the hellish traffic jams during peak hours, snatching cases and car breaking on the rise here.... so please tell me, what 'Better Homeland' so that I may know which one is improving. However Lily Yong's "Dare to Speak, Ready To Serve" is a bit unconvincing as I remembered her outbursts in the recent 30 sen fuel price hike - "Too Much!" was the headline. I would recommened that her slogan should go "Dare to Speak, Dare to Act!" The 'Act' part is important as she seemed quiet after that 30 sens outburst.

Okay, will get updates later...stay tuned :)

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