Thursday, September 21, 2006

When banners and papers went a-flying

It's election day today, a day when every single student of UM and other Universities too, it seems,( thanks to thestar.com.my), exercise their right to vote.
It was pretty darn exciting in my humble opinion. Maybe it's the fact that I get to vote, for the very first time in my life, just like how I've seen my parents vote, when elections swung by, seeing people in uniforms around the hall (blue, in this case) to take care of order-yeah,order in an empty dining hall- and having people crossing your name out with a red pen when you hand them your card.
The thrill of walking towards the silvery,covered compartments with pen attached, with a secret to keep, a secret that will be translated onto colourful pieces of paper, to be crossed and casted into ballot boxes as part of one huge, multi-tone voice.
I have to say though, that the days leading to it was fairly quiet, especially in my college- the college of "polite" and "nerdy" mostly medical fac's students. Nonetheless, the feel, albeit soft, was there, some of the candidates came over during dinner time (how smart are they, to catch hold of people when they're eating) to campaign in their coats and their flyers and their konco-konco (right hand men).
"How are you?, My name is... "
"Ni hao? Wo shi.."
"Enjoying your food? heh heh."


Seeing their sweaty faces, the least people could do was to stop eating and pay attention to them and to take the effort to read their manifestos. I mean, I'm sure it took guts to approach total strangers, whats more, to ask them to vote for you, so for that, they reserve respect. It's just plain rude to pretend they don't exist and treating their flyers of which they've distributed without any lack of effort as undigested waste material, excreted from the other opening other than the mouth.
It wouldn't hurt to show some support. An ear, an eye, even if your minds don't share the same inkling.

Of course, I've got a free keychain in the process too.

And with elections, there are politics. Pro-government, not so pro-government.
Sad to say, I don't much about either. I didn't get to join any ceramah of any kind, nor talks, nor get a hold of what they are actually fighting for. The only gist I have, carried by a little birdie, is that the government gave you a University building, gave you a place in the University and thus, you're obliged to 'X' near where you think you should.
Another birdie came by and said that you might get kicked out of the college if you don't vote like you, again, should.
Now, should you?
If I don't know any better, I would say that I sound just like a radical.
That's for me to know, and for you to find out.

I'm still waiting for my varsity life to start.
I so don't feel like a University student yet.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

yo... yeah.. actually wanna ask you some other day one but since you "mentioned" it here..so... wat is these elections about? choosing student representative committe rite? but err.. how come it goes all the way up to newspapers and all?

p/s: i lazy to read tht section on newspapers....

Anonymous said...

Politics..? Not my cuppa tea...

amy-da-great said...

to-buttercup
Yeah, its for choosing student representatives..like in my case, we have representatives for the faculty and also reps for the whole UM (they call them calon Umum). Though it's not really in the open, but each candidate is actually reprensenting either the government i.e the University, or the students' front (some say representative of PAS and DAP - but basically, just the opposite side). So, like that la.
:-)

to-lw
lol..i know..ah..but to observe is fun!