Can Still Hold The Sarawak State Election Or GE15, But ‘Indoors’

 

Pakatan Harapan proudly announces that we now live in the New Malaysia. The entire world says we now live in the era of the New Normal. Well, allow this New Normal and New Malaysia to extend to the way we hold elections — the safe way minus the risk of another wave of Covid-19 infections.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In the UK, there are no posters, banners, flags, rallies, ceramah, or any form of ‘noise’ whatsoever during elections. Due to the total lack of activity, you would never suspect that a general election was being held. People just quietly go out and vote and it is no big deal.

In Malaysia, by-elections, state elections and general elections will not be possible without a huge and noisy pesta and a price tag of RM1.5 billion or RM2.5 billion to pay for this grand affair.

We don’t need this to know who to vote for

Imagine the billions that can be saved if the pesta was eliminated from Malaysian elections? This money could be spent for more useful purposes, especially in these troubled times of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

This election pesta is actually a throwback of the 1950s when communication was still very primitive. The only way to reach the voters was to go down to the ground. In fact, the mainly rural and majority uneducated voters only recognised logos. Hence the need for hundreds of millions worth of posters, banners, flags, etc.

And the only way to deliver your message and (false) promises to the voters was through rallies and ceramah.

But that was 60 or 70 years ago, before the time of transistor radios when the only way to reach the voters was through wireless radios. Times have changed since the days of the 1950s and today 20 million Malaysians are on the internet with more than 32 million mobile phones or smartphones.

Do you need these rallies to swing the voters who have already decided who to vote for?

We no longer need posters, banners, flags, rallies, ceramah, or any form of ‘noise’ to reach the voters. However, somehow, we feel we cannot win the election unless we first win the perang poster or get 100,000 people to attend our rallies and ceramah every night.

If by now the voters do not know who to vote for, then there is nothing you can do any longer. With all the noise that is being generated every day, it is not like there is a vacuum of information but more like an information overload and information overdose.

So why do you still need posters, banners, flags, rallies, ceramah, etc? Just announce the election date. Have the hari penamaan calun as a closed-door session. Then, on polling day, let the voters come out to vote with mandatory social distancing imposed.

Even 1,000 rallies and ceramah are not going to make these people vote for Barisan Nasional

The problem is not polling day. The problem is the days between hari penamaan calun and hari mengundi. It is the rallies, ceramah, and door-to-door campaigns that are high risk. Ban the rallies, ceramah, and door-to-door campaigns and Malaysia can safely hold the Sarawak state election and/or GE15.

In fact, the Sarawak state election and GE15 can be held simultaneously early next year.

Pakatan Harapan proudly announces that we now live in the New Malaysia. The entire world says we now live in the era of the New Normal. Well, allow this New Normal and New Malaysia to extend to the way we hold elections — the safe way minus the risk of another wave of Covid-19 infections.