Gotong-Royong Pem'BERSIH'an

Oniwat ya jorak-jorak m'risi?

Last weekend was probably one of the most spiciest weekends our country has ever been through. Bersih 2.0 made it's point very clear about fair elections...I guess. In Miri, all the roads leading to the Waterfront area was 'blocked' by our men in white. For once I almost thought I could could get away with not going to work on Saturday. Hahaha, but after passing by blockades at the 24 Hour KFC entrance and the traffic light in front of Surabaya Restaurant entrance, I was finally allowed to get into the office compounds after being stopped by the police near the CIMB junction. To tell you the truth, I had a DAP Ubah stuck to my windsreen so I had to pull it off and hide it before I could open my windows to the police. Here's the dialogue on that fateful morning:

Mr. Police:  Haa...nak ke mana tu?

Me:             Pegi keja...

Mr. Police:  Sabtu pun keje ker?

Me:             Ye la...aku keja kompeni...bukan keja government. Kena la keja Sabtu.

Mr. Police:  Ko bukan nak gi ofis Dr. Teo la?

Me:             Takler (I had to speak in lepeh Malay coz I realized the guy wasn't Sarawakian). Bukan bini aku nak beranak pun (FYI: for those unfamiliar with Miri, Dr. Teo is an ultra-pembangkang but he operates both his maternity clinic/political office in the Waterfront area).

Mr. Police:  Hahahaha...pandailah ko ni buat lawak...tak nak masuk Maharaja Lawak ker?

Me:             Oh? Hahaha (dalam aku ketawa tok, peluh dingin dah keluar dah tok). Camner nak masuk Maharaja Lawak kalau Raja Lawak pun tak lepas? Hahahaha...

Mr. Police:  Oooo tak lepas? Dah penah begi ujibakat ke ni?

Me:             Errrr...ta penah. tapi kalo ader buat kat Miri, nak kot.

Mr. Police:  Alaaaa, takyah susah-susah ujibakat Raja Lawak, kat lokap pun banyak gak orang bleh dengar lawak engko.

Me:             Ahaha...ahaa..aha..haaaa.

Mr. Police:  Dah dah dah!! Masuk! Gi keje! Kang aku sumbat betul-betul dalam balai baru tau.

Mr:             (Gulp!) Ok encik, sori encik, aku jalan encik...babai encik.

Okay, so only the first two sentences were true in that dialogue. Hahaha, he let me pass through once I told him I was going to work. Selebihnya, loyar burok jak!!! Hahahaha. Berbalik kepada cerita Bersih.

What I don't understand is why are all these people who are rallying, risking it all for democracy? To me, everything that they're doing, whether it's supporting the government's point of view or the Bersih point of view, is altogether pointless. They might as well rallied AND cleaned the streets of KL at the same time. Bring your brooms and dustpans along, sweep the streets, baru 'bersih'. Talk about gotong-royong, memang gotong-royong berdemonstrasi la everyone on Saturday. But the streets of KL got dirtier on Sunday. That means, literally, they didn't live up to their name. So I define their cause as: FAILURE. Hahahaha.

Our security personnel successfully watching over the 'clean'liness in Miri.

What took me by surprise was the enthusiasm of thousands of Malaysians who actually took part in all the commotion. I was awed by reports, especially the up-to-the-minute information posted by Malaysiakini on Saturday. There was a scoop on a woman; who was a retired civil servant that took part in it. She was earlier told by the police to return home and not involve herself in any of it, but she went street demonstrating anyway. She was quoted saying that 'she was tired of simply having to follow orders around without question, and that she was finally given a chance to truly express her thoughts about our government'.

Wow! I don't know about anybody else out there, but that single report struck a chord in me. Honestly, how is it possible for a middle aged woman, who was probably a decent and disciplined civil servant half her life (I mean, I refer to disciplined because she was able to work in civil service up to her retirement!) to decisively rise to this sort of occasion. What on Earth could have pissed her off so much about the government during her employment, that she has decided to take such a risk?

There has to be something, during her working years that changed her midset forever and I can bet you that this is probably the same situation for most government servants out there. I mean, come election time, they are 'employed' temporarily by the Election Commission. Could she have seen something or was forced to do something that made her realise that election in Malaysia is not fair after all? Haha, to tell you the truth, I find that a joke. You wanna know why? Look at these reasons:

1. It is an 'open secret' that if government servants were to vote for the opposition, they are deemed to sertain 'consequences' such as being transferred to rural areas or face some sort of dicsiplinary call-up or be the one who never gets promoted.
2. You are entitled to be arrested under ISA at any point when you are deemed as a threat to the government.
3. Only the government could suddenly allocate ridiculous amount of imaginary money, ON THE SPOT FOR DEVELOPMENT PURPOSES when that particular area starts to look like place where they might lose their votes.

Now, time for something called, HARSH TRUTHS my friends.

THIS 'IS' DEMOCRACY

Democracy is not power to the people.

Democracy is not freedom of thoughts or freedom of expression.

Demoracy is the tool of suble dictatorship.

Who invented the first democracy?

The Romans, right?

But did they ever tell you in your secondary school Sejarah syllabus that 'democracy' ended up dead to the Romans?
From democracy...they were turned into an EMPIRE!!

They were then subjected to the rule of an Emperor.

That is democracy, my friends.

The philosophy of freedon is only meant to make you believe that you have the power to make a change. Yes, you do...but the power is simply made to make you shift from one dictator to another. Ain't that stupid? You are simply a tool for someone else to achieve real executive power. You do not have that power, you only have the freedom to execute your right to choose, yes...that freedom itself is powerful, but does it bring the resultant 'power' of authority to you? Hell no it doesn't!

The one you choose gets that power and you are then subjected to THEIR authority. So either way, padan muka si pengundi juak lah nak?

Now if you understand that philosophy, then you realise that all these rallies, battle cries, freedom fighting...is a waste of time, money, effort and strength. The success of democracy is not subjected to the power of the individual to 'vote', it s actually determined by the ability to influence the individual 'voters' to vote for you.

Another thing to understand is, politics is NOT about governance of state. Politics is all about nepotisme, cronisme and many other types of -isms. It doesn't matter if you are practicing democracy or communism, only a certain 'handful' of people benefits enonomically. The practice of politics is simply a macro version of domestic financing. It's simply about how to fill up your empty pockets to the rim and then get a bigger pocket to fill those to the rim. Then you fill up the pockets of your close relatives and friends.

Once you don't have a big enough pocket to fill, only then you realize that there's so many more empty pockets out there i.e. the voters pockets, but you won't realize that unless you haven't finished up filling up your own pockets in the first place or...when it's election time is right around the corner. No matter who you vote for, whoever is in government WILL practice this because THAT 'IS' DEMOCRACY.