Disappearing voices and the choice to surrender
Recently, I had the privilege of being with too many journalists assigned to different constituencies and party candidates for the season. I met up with one foreign correspondent from across the causeway the day before, for instance, who I found far more involved and concerned about Malaysian politics than most of my friends.
I was both humbled by these people, and then disgusted by the many.
There's the talk that we have these days, you know, when you meet up in circles and the first line instead of, 'Dah makan tak?', you go, 'So where are you voting?'
I'm disgusted that so many of my friends, JOURNALISTS assigned to cover the elections in fact, answer so matter of factly, 'Hahaha, no i'm not even registered, what's the point?'
These are the same people who, when not in election season, will sit around your local cafe bars and bitch about evil editors and crazy deadlines. These are the same people who are suppressed by government-controlled news agencies, and these are the same people who have the privilege of going to more ceramahs than your average PAS-fervent makcik down the road, these are the same people who have the first-hand view of how our favourite incumbent Pak Lah actually articulates his opinions in not-so-many-phrase over half-an-hour long speeches of success stories and proof of records, and these are the people who KNOW first hand by virtue of EXPERIENCE that who is walking the talk and who is not, …
And they tell me, 'You know, I am not voting, i'm just going to sit and sleep, stupid elections.'
…
Of course its stupid, we have stupid politicians, stupid candidates, stupid elections commissions, and stupid journalists assigned to cover the ceramahs… crap right?
March 4th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
hmmm… was in the company of some journalist at a sivarasa rasiah(P107 Subang) & eli wong (N37 Bkt Lanjan) presscon juz tis sat past. was as equally aghast as u when i asked and got a casual “i din register to vote” answer. so, like yah, i know whr u’re coming from when u wrote tis post.
March 4th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Please also don’t forget the stupid citizens.
March 5th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
it’s difficult to choose between a rotten apple and a poison cake. Sometimes, not voting is a choice.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
To be fair, to be a Journalist who cares in this country, you’re going to need a heart of steel and the will of Christ himself, because when you see all the injustice that goes on and how much you have to overcome to even make a small difference, you will just die of heartache.
Not to say the good fight is not worth fighting, but everyone is mortal and helplessness has the annoying habit of coming up and consuming your soul. So when a journalist has to go out there and sell their dignity by writing according to the script just to make a living, i think they can be cut some slack.
March 7th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
NicK: I understand the difficulties a journalist has to face when it comes to writing the script, but the same journalist cannot just give up his right to vote - do you see what I was saying?
You’ve got to really hear it from these people, ‘you know what. I didn’t even register, what for?’
That’s the thing I can’t stand.