Thursday 31 January 2013

JomBalikUndi

Kevin Bathman: JomBalikUndi!

"I don't very often write about my home country. On those rare occasions when I do, it is usually to ridicule the current BN-led government and their dirty tactics to control its people.

For the longest time, I've never seen my own fellow countrymen as social activists but surprisingly, the tides have changed in the past 3-4 years. The sentiment is of anger and frustration and they're taking it to the streets and social media.

When I was asked by a Malaysian friend in Sydney to get involved and to use the skills I had to advocate for change in Malaysia, I decided I needed to do just that.

This campaign 'Come Home To Home' (JomBalikUndi) is all about getting fellow Malaysians to to fly back to vote in the crucial General Elections next month. Most of the Malaysian diaspora are spread all around the world,and we're hoping that campaign will provide some hope and invigorate others.

The Facebook page that I'm administering is filled with messages of hope, frustration and determination. It is a very rare occassion that I feel a sense of camaraderie but it is inspiring when I see people getting involved for something beyond themselves. Results are trickling in, with some media starting to pick up the story.

Perhaps, very soon, a new Malaysia may emerge from years of corruption and social injustice.

Power to the people I say.

http://asiancorrespondent.com/96520/air-land-or-sea-malaysian-expats-plan-election-exodus/

www.facebook.com/JomBalikUndiMalaysia  "

Air, land or sea: Malaysian expats plan election exodus

By Rob O'Brien Jan 31, 2013 11:24AM UTC
Malaysian voters living abroad will be mobilising in their thousands to make the dash home for the 2013 election to make their vote count. And nothing, it seems, will stop them.

From Singapore, Australia and across the region, to the US and UK, voters will be travelling by car, bus and plane to vote in an election ear-marked as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for change.
There are more than a million Malaysians living overseas from a population of about 28 million people – enough to make a real difference come election day.

Buoyed by the online activism that spurred the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, Malaysia’s bloggers and campaigners have been encouraging people to make the trip home.

“We saw successful social media campaigns like the (2008) Obama election, the Arab Spring and the ‘Israel Loves Iran’ campaign, and wanted to emulate something that would bring expatriate Malaysians worldwide together to show their support and solidarity towards Malaysians at home,” says Kevin Bathman, an expat Malaysian living in Sydney.

His Facebook-driven campaign – called ‘Malaysia, It’s Time for Change‘ – shows images of Malaysian voters and their messages of hope and it has quickly picked up a following online.

“Many of us have family and relatives and our bond is still very strong, so we felt we needed to do something to show them that they were not alone,” he adds.

A similar campaign, organised by Singapore’s Bersih movement - a branch of the global Bersih campaign for transparency in Malaysia – is offering a car pooling service for expat Malaysians in the city state. Coaches are also being booked to travel to places as far away as Penang and Ipoh in the Northeast of the country.

There are between 300,000 and 500,000 Malaysians living in Singapore; the Bersih campaign will match drivers and passengers to get as many voters back over the causeway.

The big voter migration has been pushed by growing doubts that votes cast overseas will really count.
Previously, only Malaysian students, civil servants and members of the armed forces living overseas were allowed to vote by post.

However, In January Malaysia’s Election Commission (EC) mandated that overseas citizens who had registered to vote and had returned home at least once in the five years before an election would be allowed to cast absentee ballots.

But arrangements haven’t been clear. MyOverseasVote, a London-based campaign group dedicated to securing the right to vote for all Malaysian citizens living overseas, says there is still uncertainty about how and whether they will be able to vote by post.

Malaysia’s ruling Barisan Nasional coalition was returned in the last election in 2008 but the Opposition took more than a third of parliamentary seats – a huge setback for the government and one of its worst results since 1969.

Part of the government’s dismal showing in 2008 was put down to the rising influence of Malaysians online.

William De Cruz, part of the team behind the ‘Malaysia, It’s Time for Change’ Facebook campaign, says that no one is really convinced of the EC changes to postal voting. He will be flying home with his wife to vote even though he is now eligible to register for postal voting in Sydney.

“Malaysia is still a long way from a proper, transparent and verifiable postal vote,” he says.

The internet has become a critical medium for voter participation and Malaysians are vocal critics of their government; increasingly it is social networks that are being used by young Malaysians eager for a change. A Facebook group called ‘100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak Resignation’ has amassed more than 250,000 likes.

“Malaysia’s young have decided they want a say in the country’s future – you only have to see the reports and view film footage of past rallies calling for reform to see this – and social media is their platform,” says De Cruz.

“It’s the best way to raise awareness of the idea that as Malaysia heads to its most important election ever, every vote must count.”


Wednesday 30 January 2013

Become the author of your own destiny

"You can become the author of your own destiny.

You can look the future in the eye and say: I am no longer a captive to history.

Whatever I can imagine, I can accomplish.

I am no longer a vassal in a faceless bureaucracy.

I am an activist, not a drone.

I am no longer a foot soldier in the march of progress.

I am a Revolutionary."



- Gary Hamel, Leading The Revolution.

Time to Seize the day

Time to Seize the day
Stan CH Lee

Used to be, the biggest and baddest and cruellest became kings and lords. In the era of might is right, this was the accepted norm. People did not know better because to question the status quo means your head on a plate or stick.Things have changed. We already have first class infrastructures. Sadly the mentality and behaviour of our leaders is still decidedly third world. But the people are asking some difficult questions of our people at the top of the food chain. Instead of answering, they are chewing the fat and spitting out the bones.

As the clock ticks and time runs out for BN, the signs of insanity is beginning to show with increasing frequency. From making senseless accusations to telling outright lies these desperate acts are piling up fast and furious. As the authorities remain silent on
seditious provocations spewed by its ultras like Ibrahim Ali with his Burn theBible call we can see the helplessness of the man at the top- PM Najib. He can only go around begging for 5 more years in his You Help Me I HelpYou fashion. Even his vainglorious attempt at shoring up his Muslim support base by going to GAZA has been rebuffed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who accuses him of being divisive.

Too many years of unbridled power has totally corrupted the people currently holding the reigns of power.The rot has gotten so bad, they cannot tell right from wrong, apology from forgiveness. They can no longer distinguish what is Public Funds and what is Private Funds. It is all theirs to squander as they wish camouflaged by some benevolent looking project. They have even confused the party with the country! Any attack on the party is now routinely equated with an attack on the King, country, race and religion and must be repelled at all costs. Including the loss of life and limb. Lending credence to the saying He whom the Gods will destroy, He first make mad.

The floodgates have been opened and as more skeletons tumble out of the cabinet, we see the raakyat , long deprived of a voice, taking to the streets to show their discontent. 

With the rumblings growing, and the anti BN momentum building up, will we soon see the "Storming of the Bastilles" symbolically enacted on Putrajaya?
 
The BN is reeling and is in total disarray, at its weakest ever.
 
This chance may never come again.It is truly up to the people now, to seize the day, to not be bought off with BR1M or BR1BE.

Yes, look to the future my friends. Your day of destiny will come very soon.

Will you do what is right for your country? And for your children?

A new dawn is breaking over Malaysia. Will you seize the day? Do it!

Malaysia has been in darkness for too long. GE 13 is the dawn of a new era. Wake up and seize the day. Please share http://thedrawingisonthewall.blogspot.ca/


Friday 25 January 2013

"Pengundi Pos Luar Negara"

I rang back fm switzerland to SPR in Msia asking abt "Pengundi Pos Luar Negara".

Now is clarified: once i register as an overseas postal voter, i must vote at the Malaysian Embassy in Switzerland.

Once/shoud i register as an overseas postal voter, Even by the time the election is called i am physically in Malaysia, i can only cast my vote with the Malaysian Embassy in Switzerland, and not my original voting place in PJ. ...oh, no flexibility. :)


So, for the time being, i will not proceed for the form submission as an overseas postal voter, indeed i still intend to fly back shd my schedules here allow.


 

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Anyway

Anyway
(Purported to have been written by Mother Teresa)

People are often unreasonable,
Illogical, and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
You will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
People may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
Someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
They may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
People will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
And it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
It is between you and God;
It never was between you and them anyway.

The last sentence, i would like to edit to:

End of the way, it is us, ourselves, feel good about
the good deeds we have been doing, and therefore, we
feel good and in peace.