Msia's merry 'buy-elections'

Malaysia is perhaps the only country where the death of an elected representative brings jubilation to the local residents. Why should that bring joy to the local people?

It is because a by-election comes, Santa Claus will also come. He will bring all kinds of gifts, and make your dreams come true.

Rampant election corruption

No sooner the dead buried, you will see the physical transformation of the constituency. Amenities that are lacking or have been disrepair for ages are suddenly fixed up.- roads, street lights, drains, water pipes, etc.

Each minister will bring with him good tidings of 'instant allocation funds' for 'instant projects'. Needless to say, this expenses which range from a few millions to hundreds of million ringgit for each for each constituency, comes from the pocket of taxpayers.

And of course, during the handing goodies, residents never cease to be reminded who they must vote for. In fact, some of these promises are conditional upon their electoral support and a BN win.

You may ask, aren't this bribery?

Of course they are. In fact they are serious breaches of our election laws.

People power reforms?

Thousands of local residents are fed nightly with lavish dinners, stage shows, karaoke, complete with lucky draws that include motorcycles, TV, domestic appliances and numerous gifts – compliments of the BN of course.

In the midst of these merry-makings, I wonder how many of the electorate realise how heavy their responsibility is when they cast their votes in a few days’ time. Only they can restore some integrity to our electoral system which has now become a total farce.

And only through the votes of our people can we revive the democratic dreams of our founding fathers.

Without any avenue to institute reforms and make corrections through the democratic means, there is only one way left – the people power reform like that is currently raging in the Middle East.