Lift your finger for democracy

The North is a carbuncle that needs severe excision. Never can so sorry an entity be so pesky and become so troublesome an adversary and be a mighty danger to democracy. So we must therefore consider ourselves lucky not to have founding fathers with contorted ideas corrupted by malfeasance and perfidy.

We are appalled by the buffoonery of the dictators of the ilk of Korea’s comical Kim(s) – the one(s) who celebrate birthdays with grand parades and soldiers marching in goose-stepping mind-boggling precision. It beggars belief how a society can marshal its masses to laugh or cry in unison to some crazy choreographed display of emotion. It simply makes the blood curdle just to watch such sycophantic show of obsessive veneration.

The young brat has his father’s and grandfather’s genes coursing through his veins. How can anyone with an ounce of conscience fire off a million Won’s worth of rocketry while one’s own citizenry wallow in desperate penury? A BBC documentary filmed in secret exposed the wretched existence of North Koreans, some eating dried grass while others washing clothes in a snowy stream shivering in the cold. For transport, how about a horse-drawn carriage; drawn by a spindly, two-legged country comrade?

The same socialitst fate was suffered by East Germans post World War Two but between Gorbachev’s glasnost and the combined right wing ideologue proffered by Reagan and Thatcher, democracy prevailed. Unable to withstand the might of what is right, bits of the Berlin wall broke, and got traded on ebay once the suppression was lifted releasing the entrepreneurial grit in true expression of free market ideals. Again in Asia, between the People’s Republic of China (PROC) and the Republic of China (ROC), which is the freer of the two? The PROC is China while ROC is Taiwan. People’s Republic? Puhleeezz….!The last I looked, there was free and fair elections in the latter.

So why raise this specter of misery? Only for Malaysians to be thankful that we are truly a Democratic State of Malaysia without having to award ourselves the title of DSM! We do not yet have bombs – okay, what we had in Nibong Tebal was a baby bomblet that went off more as a nuisance rather than the result of any wanton act of terrorism. (That of course does not mean we condone violence in any shape or form, and the police have suspects in custody who might shed some light into the origins of this mischief).

So Malaysians out there, we find ourselves this Sunday (May 5) putting our best forefinger forward in the true exercise of democracy. After listening to so much promises, attending various kenduri rakyats, waking up to radio ads or tossed a free tee shirt on a trip to Pavillion, it is time to deliver your verdict. So for the love of true democracy, let’s lift a finger – and come out to vote. Getting your forefinger unceremoniously daubed in some cheap shellac that will or will not wear off (depending on your politics) is a small price to pay. We may complain since we demand perfection and only want utmost propriety from our elected representatives.