10 November, Kuala Lumpur

So it has come to this. A march through the streets of KL on a Saturday afternoon to demand free and fair elections, a topic well-known for its rampant gerrymandering, and its phantom voters. Most of you who read this blog are apolitical. It is of no concern to you. My friends, it is something we should be concerned about.

Gerrymandering is the act of dividing various seats up for contention in an unfair manner. Proof of gerrymandering can be found in BN’s control of about 90% of parliament despite winning only about 70% of the overall votes.

Then there are the phantom voters, who add more votes to the ruling party. If things do not change soon, there will be a historic turnout in the upcoming elections; an estimated 110% of the population will cast their votes, mostly for you-know-who.

I am comfortably middle-class, and so are most of my friends and colleagues. The status-quo is to our advantage. However it is the basic human right that there should be allowed democracy, the ability to choose one’s leaders.

The Prime Minister’s uninspired reply to the protest, (which was the only thing the local press was willing to mention regarding this gathering of 40 thousand people) was; “The people should reject street demonstrations and effect any change through (the very transparent, I know) polls.” It’s almost as if he doesn’t care. We call for free and fair elections, and he and he tells us to push off.

Yes the gathering was illegal, the police having failed to issue a warrant for the rally, but so was UMNO Youth’s gathering in front of the World Trade Centre not too long ago.

Today’s headlines should have screamed, “Police use chemicals and tear gas on peaceful protesters,” rather than what was written on the only front page that had mention of the story, “ILLEGIAL GATHERING FAILS, 4000 Police Deployed for Public Safety”.

Fortunately, foreign press are not owned by the ruling party, so out went news on Al-Jazeera, and CNN. The Al-Jazeera reporter in particular was unfortunate enough to have been hit by the tear gas, and had to be helped from the scene.

How long are we to stay silent? How long are we to do nothing and take blow after blow while the people in power enjoy the wealth we taxpayers are responsible for? (have you seen the size of Datuk Zakaria’s mansion?)

I am not the least bit embarrassed that such internal turmoil has been made known all over the world. I am however proud that the common man, who for so long has lived under the heavy hand of political oppression, has risen up and given the status-quo the finger. It’s about time too!