Election Watch: Parliamentary & State Seats

Now that Parliament has been dissolved & election date will be announced anytime soon, will post on opinions & views on the local political scene and today will be the first one. Approximately 3 million newly registered voters (not inclusive of the phantom ones) are going to the polls for the first time.

However, based on my observation & talks with the people, apparently many are still confused or have different knowledges about voting for candidates at parliamentary level & state level. Let me explain in few bits here. 1 parliamentary constituency usually consists of minimum 2 state seats, with the exception of Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya & Labuan. For example, at my place, Kelana Jaya parliamentary constituency consists of Subang Jaya & Seri Setia state seat. Below are the current incumbents with their parties:-

P. 104 KELANA JAYA
LOH GWO BURNE (PAKATAN RAKYAT - PKR)

N.31 SUBANG JAYA
HANNAH YEOH (PAKATAN RAKYAT - DAP)

N.32 SERI SETIA
NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD (PAKATAN RAKYAT - PKR)

Look out for your polling & voting areas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Malaysian_electoral_districts In the election, I will be voting under Kelana Jaya parliamentary & Subang Jaya state seat. How to know which area ur voting for? Go check your voter status at Election Committee website www.spr.gov.my. Some telecommunication company offers sms service for u to check the status. Users can also sms to 15888 & type "SPR SEMAK xxxx (IC no)" to know their areas. Once checked, dont panic if ur areas are not supposed what it should be. For example, u could be staying in USJ, Subang Jaya but instead of voting for N.31 Subang Jaya state seat, ur could be assigned to the nearby N.30 Kinrara. Some are worst, being assigned to areas that they never set foot on. Dont need to be panic as this is a result from factors below:-

1) U did not update your latest address in the electoral roll with Election Committee
2) Election Committee had area declination process (usually this is unannounced), separating the zones into few areas.

Most of the time, this incident happens due to the 2nd factor. Whether its permissible or lawful or not, up to u to decide, which is why much-criticized Bersih committee is fighting for the Election Commitee to clean up the electoral roll. Even if ur assigned to vote in areas other than where are u living now, for once, make an effort to go and make your vote counts. If u need to take a flight, do it. If u need to tumpang in a stranger's car, do it. If u think u need a GPS to help u to find the place, do it.

Bear in mind, if u dunno, the federal government Cabinet will be formed from candidates, from the party with most seats and these are the people ur putting ur votes to shape our country's political, economic & social environment & so forth. Meanwhile, state governments are formed with candidates sitting on state seats. Looking at seat composition in Kelana Jaya, all seats belong to Pakatan Rakyat (PR). The 2 current state assemblymen above sit in Selangor state assembly & helped PR to rule Selangor since they hold the majority state seats in Selangor state assembly, refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selangor_State_Assembly Our Kelana Jaya member of parliament (MP) represented PR at federal government level but BN still holds the majority shares of seats in Parliament. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_Parliament This gave them the mandate to form the current ruling government.

Now, back to the voting of the candidates in the next election. In the past, most voters' tactic of having check & balance factor while voting is to vote for the Opposition for the state seat while voting for BN for parliamentary seat. It could also be the other way round, depending on how do they look at the whole picture. Problem is many people still dunno what are they voting for & how can their local concerns being disseminated. U see, if ur rubbish not collected by the local contractors, the increasing crime rates at ur area, increasing sights of illegal immigrants etc, u go to the local service centre & see ur state assemblymen (or rather women) for immediate solutions. Its their duties to look into this & bring up to the local municipal council, local police authorities etc or worst, the state assembly to be debated if problems still unresolved.

Its ok to inform the MP too but this situation is like your office toilet often ran out of toilet papers & instead of complaining to ur departmental manager, u tell your general manager to highlight the issue in the directors' meeting. Ur MP's job is to look & highlight the issues which may need to be addressed at national level. Eg, the increasing sights of illegal immigrants at ur area could be result of failures of Immigration department staffs to check their identities & monitor their movements etc. This, could caused increased crime rates & many other social problems.

Check the background of the candidates & the appearance. He/she doesnt need to be an orator but check out Youtube during the campaigning period or better still, go check out the campaign speech expected to be held near your place. A MP also needed in debating Bill in Parliament which will may affecting us in our daily life. Think AES, GST etc. Look out for his/her abilities to give public speech & present his/her points well. Bear in mind, being loud does not mean having charisma. Think Datuk Ibrahim Ali, Datuk Bung Mokhtar, Datuk Tajuddin Abd Rahman etc. Bear in mind also, we are looking at people who can become Minister material & not racial bigots, sexists or people with big egos. Now, if ur having a problem in ur area & ur state assemblymen is from one camp while your MP is from another camp. It will be alright if both have the same goal of wanting to serve the people. What if one of them is just not interested?

My view? Vote for changes in both seats & ensure all are given to same camp. In my area, I wont change the incumbents parties of course. Your rationale will helps you in making your choice. Happy Voting !!!!

"Ask not what the country can do for you, Ask what can you do for your country"

-John Fitzgerald Kennedy-