Voting as a basic rights

Every Malaysian citizen is entitled to one vote. Its their obligation and entitlement from the age of 21 years old.

Chinese in Malaysia now comprises 25% of the Malaysia population. 12 years of school education taught us the principles of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality, check and balance, separation of power among legislative, jurisdictive and executive and voting rights. Sadly the chinese are among the most divided among the ethnic race with different education background ie english/national/ SRJKC/ SRKC and chinese independent schooling systems. On the political front we have 3 major chinese party in Peninsular ie DAP, MCA and Gerakan. Maybe this is diversity but it also means our chinese votes are spread between the 3 parties.

Chinese laments on the unfair treatment in economic and education of their children/ generation. However they do not exercise their votes properly. As a matter of fact the more highly educated the chinese is the more apathy is their brain to the politics in Malaysia. The mentality is I cant change the country so why bother. This is a viscious cycle since it will affect the generations of chinese in Malaysia.

Lets do a survey among the chinese graduates to see if they are a voter and are they eligible to vote. To vote one must first register in Pos Malaysia, Election Commisioner Offices or Malaysian Embassy/ High Comm. Then after 1 year then only they can vote. There are many Malaysian who have not voted before and many more chinese Malaysian who never register to vote so are worse than phantom voters. This are Malaysian by birth but no vote rights simply because they never bother to register themselves. One could argue why we still need to register when we should be entitled to vote once we got our IC and reach 18 years of age. What ever reason the point is one should take the initiative to get themselves registered. Is that a difficult thing to do? When there is a will there is a way.

By 2020 the percentage of chinese vote will fall further. The chinese independent school claims that they need to uphold the chinese culture. Just ask them how many of their school students are voting? This will give an indication why the DJZ is always struggling. School is an institution whereby they can inculcate the young to be a responsible citizen. Besided teaching the right concepts there are more things that need to be done to change the chinese mentality of apathy. This are the people who will shape the future. But sadly the more educated they become the more selfish they will be. It seems that the old generation are more politically aware than their younger generation choosing apathy instead. Perhaps it is due to the good life the younger one is having. There is a chinese saying when there is no country there is no family. So country comes first before the family.

My final comment is I urge every Malaysian to exercise your vote. Else one day when the crunch comes to amend the constitution do not cry and say we are forced or no choice. Its a choice you have made long time ago that give rise to todays events. Hopefully Malaysian can achieve political enlightenment so that every Malaysian can live in a fair and just society