The ‘push’ factor

Malaysians should be quite familiar to the ways political parties campaign during an election.

There will be ceramahs, there will be dinners and walk around by candidates or big wigs to meet up with the rakyat. Favourite places to go to visit would be the morning markets and the night markets, coffee shops , hawkers centres and so on.

One feature in all campaigns for votes would be to distribute flyers to promote oneself, and at the same time try to belittle the other parties, attacking on issues and policies. Many would even go down to so low as to mount personal attacks and dig out ‘bad’ histories of their opponents in order to score points and gain votes.

So it is a common sight to see workers or individuals distributing flyers on issues during campaigns. In fact, in a democracy, anyone should be allowed his or her opinion and anyone should be allowed to champion any issue in an election, as long as it is done in a peaceful manner.

Then there are groups that would use the by election to highlight the issues they champion or the plights they face. There would be petition submissions to visiting big shots, since during a by election, it is much easier to catch the attentions of more big shots in a given time since there would be so many of them visiting and campaigning.

So it is no surprise that TBH support group use the by election of Galas to try to submit petitions to big shots.

However, it was reported that Teoh’s sister was ‘arrested’, and the bother-in-law was pushed by a component party member when the group tried to seek the attention of a lady deputy minister. Despite the denial by the deputy minister, photos are now posted on the internet to show the incident. .

I really do not know what purpose the arrest would serve. PAS would in fact get more sympathy votes and angry votes which are against such action, especially among the younger voters.

Whoever are the brains behind, these people are indeed very good in shooting their own feet.

According to the CHinese Malaysiakini website, the TBH support group tried to submit a petition on three points:

• Asking for setting up of a Royal commission of inquiry
• asking for the setting up if IPCMC
• Prevent abuse of powers by enforcement arms such as MACC

I dont see why anyone should be alarmed by these 3 points. Even the PM has promised to set up a RCI after TBH’s death; and a royal commission consisting of prominent Malaysians had recommended the setting of IPCMC.

In an election, even a small incident can swing votes. So let us just wait and see whether this push factor would have any influence on voting…

courtesy of Dr Hsu's forum