Will our rights to vote lead to the wisest decision?

What does general election reminds you of? What does it make you think of when you hear about politics?

As we are all well aware of, the result of our 12^th general election back in March 2008, took the whole nation by surprise as major opposition parties joined hands triumphed Barisan Nasional (BN) with 82 seats in the parliament. It was considered as a fall over for BN considering they have been in power for all these years.

 

Statistic of the past general elections

From then on, everyone has been anticipating for the next general elections and the outcome is still in prediction whether or not BN will remain in power.

On the other hand, the question on when will the next general election be held, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s department, Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz expressed his point of view at the Parliament House on the 11^th of October 2010,

“For the moment, we have not fully recovered, from the results from the 2008 elections and I personally think that we need all the time before we can recover and I think the next election will not come before 2013”.

In truth, we as young voters has learned a lot from the past elections and the 2008 election has opened our eyes and let us know that we can – after all – use our rights wisely and exercise them on the right place.

Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan, the chairperson for Clean and Fair Elections 2.0 (BERSIH 2.0) expressed that after what had took place in March 2008, the vote lies on the hands of the citizens and that we can decide what is best for ourselves.

When asked of her opinion in the next general election, she replied, “I think the next election will tell us a lot, it will tell us that people have had enough, I personally have had enough of the dirty politics, but it will tell us whether people in general have had enough, whether the people really wanted a change, and whether people really wanted to make their vote count”

She added, “The next general election also gives an opportunity to see if multi-party democracy exists. The whole point of multi-party democracy is that the power returns to where it belongs – which is to the people.”

BERSIH 2.0 was formed in July 2005, as the Joint Action Committee for Electoral Reform to push for a thorough reform of the electoral process in Malaysia with their motto, “Only when elections are clean and fair, can citizens be real masters of their own destiny and expect holders of public office to act accountably and effectively”.

BERSIH 2.0 is a citizen’s movement for an election which is free and fair of all frauds and cheats. Dato’ Ambiga added, “what you’re going to see is that because of March 2008, there will be more attempts to actually undermine the electoral process and those who want to stay in power which is why we need to be very vigilant and which is why we need a movement by BERSIH 2.0”.

In fact, in own personal view, as a student and also a future voter, it is now a fact that electoral form is necessary to prevent a fraudulent process to happen.

Still being bugged over what may happen in the near future?

“I suppose the answer is when you exercise your right to vote, please vote for politicians who have the maturity, who appreciate the principle of democracy, and who have the right values” said Dato’ Ambiga.

PM calls for a new plan – The Key is Moderation

Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak called for a plan to a new and moving vision “to realize its founding objectives” for the Asia-Europe Summit meeting (ASEM).  He said as a group, it is vital for the members to accept that the balance of the world’s economy has shifted to advancing emerging markets.

“Concurrent with this trend, we need to accelerate the reform of multilateral institutions to reflect the new reality”.

PM Najib and many other leaders have attended the Eighth ASEM at Brussels on the 4^th of October to discuss fundamental issues relating to the theme, ‘Quality of Life’.

He added that a “global movement of the moderates” of all faiths and efforts together as one was required to make it as a success.  He claimed there was also a need to balance the rate of radical activities.

He also called for the global emphasis on inclination to moderate thinking. Najib also reiterated his statement at ASEM on Tuesday believing that the vocal and openness are the essentials for moderates in expressing their views.

Najib attended ASEM for the first time as Prime Minister, recognized the European Union’s (EU) “courageous and unprecedented steps” to guard any harm from occurring on eurozone with the severe economic downturn and risks surfacing from the monarch debt problems during the financial crisis which happened recently.

He also spoke on the New Economic Model (NEM) which is a testimony of Malaysia’s new way of thinking and philosophy in driving this country to a developed and high-income nation by 2020 that is ‘inclusive’ and ‘sustainable’.

Najib said continuous macro-economic observation, composed domestic macro-economic policies as well as regular regional and intra-regional consultation would help to detect undermine events and coordinate policy responses to resolve them.

“Improved cooperation and consultation between the governments of Europe and Asia is one way to ensure we are better prepared for the future.”

Back in Malaysia, Najib said it was a good forum for informal consultation and has given Malaysia a huge opportunity to send a very strong message that Asean and Asian were important to Europe and vice versa.

He arrived at the KL International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang, from Brussels accompanied by his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.