The Day when I was a Polling Agent - Final Part

The aftermath of typhoon “Anwar”

At 5 PM, the school gate was closed and our party security worker stood guard just in case the 2004 two-hour illegal extension of voting time happened again. The counting process started right after 5.00 PM and only EC staff and counting agents were allowed in the room. The rest of us waited outside in our pondok just outside the school. There was nothing else we could do apart from praying to Allah to take care of the rest. We were ready to accept any outcome.

Supporters gathered at our pondok while the counting was going on inside the school. At 6.22 PM an SMS came that said we led Channel 2 for state seat by 168 votes. I read aloud the results to supporters and instantaneously a loud “Allahu Akbar” broke the silence. The blue pondok stood still. Seventeen minutes later another SMS came in for parliamentary seat, with BN left behind by 84 votes. Another cry of the takbir pierced through the evening air. The other pondok stood its ground. Exactly half an hour later both state and parliamentary results for Channel 1 came and by that time BN was trailing even further behind. Some youngsters on motorbikes started leaving the blue pondok and we knew we were winning the count for the polling centre. Around 7.30 PM our counting agents walked out of the school gate smiling, bringing the good news to the waiting crowd. It was going to be a long night for BN.

That night supporters gathered again at the local stadium which was used for the nomination two weeks ago. The final results for both state and parliamentary seats would be announced there. After dinner I joined thousands of eager supporters from both sides at the stadium. Again, they were split into two groups each one taking up one side of the stadium with rows of policemen standing guard in the middle. The atmosphere was volatile. The stadium lights were off but everyone’s heart was on fire.

Around 10 PM, all sorts of news and rumours were spread across the field about the fall of big names including some ministers. The crowd on our side of the stadium was getting very excited while the other side fell silent. Out of the darkness, somebody brought in a laptop, connected to wireless Internet and started an impromptu breaking news desk getting feeds from Malaysiakini and PAS websites. Soon people gathered around him like moths around a light and we could not believe our eyes when the preliminary results started rolling in from cyberspace. Early unconfirmed results delivered the son-in-law that everyone loved to hate, KJ, a defeat. It was too difficult to believe but it blew everyone’s mind. Final results were however in his favour. Later, we heard about Khir Toyo losing his seat but it turned out that he didn’t. Things were getting really wild. Then Samy Vellu fell, Zainuddin Maidin was also out and Shahrizat followed suit. A Malaysian friend who was working in the UK called on my mobile phone to confirm the incredible news he was reading on his computer half way across the world. Apparently, the call only cost him 1p or 7 cents a minute. His voice was frequently drowned by the instant burst of takbir amidst the euphoria. I ended up giving him live commentary of the political drama that was unfolding here in Malaysia.

Soon it was clear that the strong wind that blew at my local school polling centre that evening was developing into a full-blown typhoon. And this typhoon is what I’d call Typhoon “Anwar” for this man has galvanized all the various forces of wind, heat, moisture and pressure into a political storm that brought destructions to arrogant power across five states. Many would liken it to a tsunami, but a tsunami has no name. On the other hand, meteorologists would give a name to hurricanes and typhoons. Like Hurricane “Katrina” that humbled the mighty US against forces of nature, Typhoon “Anwar” also knocked the powerful BN off their ego. The people had spoken and their voices could no longer be ignored.

Locally, preliminary results showed we won both state and parliament seats by huge majority. The EC did not announce official results even until I drove home from the stadium late that night. And back at home I had my eyes focused on my TV monitor and laptop as official results streamed into the bedroom. My head did not hit the pillow till 3 o’clock that night. The full-scale destruction of Typhoon “Anwar” would only be known the next morning.

Two weeks after, much of the dust has begun to settle. Most state governments have been sworn in and the losing parties have had to do some serious soul searching. It turns out that the all-powerful BN which has been ruling this country since Independence almost lost its seat of federal power. Their share of popular votes dipped from more than 64% in 2004 to just over 50% this time. Were it not for postal votes and the cancellation of the use of indelible ink, they could well have lost the simple majority as well. No wonder the EC chairman looked even more depressed than Pak Lah when announcing the results that night. The massive vote swing had taken him by surprise too.

Looking back at the night of the 8th of March, I realised it was the beginning of a new era. Anwar himself called it the dawn of a new Malaysia. The old Malaysian politics that we used to think was unchangeable disappeared overnight. The threat of repeat of May 13 violence vaporized into the air. It was an empty threat to put fear into people not to change the status quo. Now that the seat of power in some states has changed hands, all eyes will be focused on the five states led by what is now referred to as Barisan Rakyat. Many hope that the newfound power will not turn them into arrogant, corrupt leaders like the ones that they had just pushed out. Demonstration of good governance for the next five years will strengthen their appeal and the once invincible BN also will be pushed to change for its own survival. It has been a blessing to us that we remain peaceful despite the initial implicit threat of chaos and instability if BN was not returned to power with overwhelming majority. People did not fall into the trap and have instead moved on to a system with more check and balance. Perhaps in the next two or three general elections a more stable two-party system will emerge following the model of Washington or Wesminster. This is going to be good for the people.

Across the field that night, many of us screamed so hard that we almost lost our voice. But nobody seemed to mind. We knew that from that day, people’s voice would be heard loud and clear by those in power. I know our democracy in Malaysia is still fragile and like a toddler it is bound to stumble before it can walk properly. But I am optimistic. I believe we are heading in the right direction. Years from now, when I look back on this momentous event, or if my grandchildren ask me about what I have done to this country, may be I can tell them that I contributed in my own small way in bringing this change. That change happened on the day when I was a polling agent.

The End.

The Day I was a Polling Agent - Part 3

…Part 3 – Witness to democracy

On the night before the polling day, two friends and I spent the night at the pondok keeping watch. There was a lot of valuable stuff – audio visual equipment, VCD etc. – that would surely go missing if they were left unattended. There was no time to pack up as we were going to open early the next morning. In my ten years of married life, this was the first time I had had to spend the night fighting off mosquito attacks under a tent by a roadside. The mosquitoes were 100% on the BN’s side that night. I didn’t remember whether there was a full moon in the sky but we were certainly surrounded by full moons all around our tent...and the shampoo girl posters with a rocket on it.

The morning of the 8th was a beautiful day. The weather was going to be bright all day. After a short trip home to wash and change, I was back at the pondok again by 7.30 AM. By 8.00 AM the school gate was opened and we received our first customer who came to check his name on the electoral roll. The first batch of polling agents went in to start their duty for the next 3 hours. More people arrived at our pondok and some unknown supporters brought nasi lemak and kueh for party workers. Later mineral water came and by lunch nasi tomato was delivered. I never knew who paid for the food and drinks but I am sure they did it with sincerity and not hoping for any monetary reward from us. After all we are poor man’s party. No big company would support us for fear of reprisal from the powers-that-be. Our support came from grassroots who would give but not expecting anything in return. I believe all they want is to see change and contribute to it in their own way. If anybody stopped at our pondok and asked for money, we would just show them the blue pondok where their chances of getting it were a lot brighter.

By 10.30 AM the first batch of polling agents finished their duty and the next batch took over. I helped friends canvassing for votes as voters were walking to the polling station. We took one side of the road and the guys in blue took another. There were occasional chorus of shouts and jeers from both sides but the police were standing close by keeping the situation under control. I could see people were feeling a bit uneasy with the constant touting from both parties. Some quickened their pace into the school as they already made their mind who they would vote for. Many would just give a brief smile, nodded their head and walked past us into the gate. I doubt how effective this strategy would work as I don’t think voters would change their mind just because we stopped them by a roadside and sweet talked them into putting a cross against a certain candidate. But it was fun and the other side was also doing it.

Just after mid-day I cast my own vote. I had waited until the queue became short so I didn’t have to wait too long. Soon after zohor, I went in again to take over as a polling agent from my friend who had been in there for 3 hours. I would be sitting in Channel 1 for the next 3 hours verifying voters’ IC numbers and names and striking them off the electoral list once they’d been given ballot papers. As the electoral list was arranged according to birth date, Channel 1 was made up of elder voters, Channel 3 the youngest voters and Channel 2 those in between. We were told to be extra alert because there had been allegations of phantom voters using other people’s IC to vote, or multiple voters who voted more than once. We were determined not to let them deny us fair results.

There were three polling clerks, each with their own specific task. The first clerk checked the voter’s IC, read the number and name aloud so that the polling agents from all contesting parties could verify and strike out the name off the list. The second clerk would tear off two ballot papers – one for parliament and one for state seat – and give it to the third clerk for punching. The voter would then proceed to polling booth, mark their choice and then slot the papers into two transparent ballot boxes right in the middle of the room. The presiding officer kept everything under control and his decision in case of dispute was final. As polling agent, we watched every step of the voter and made sure that he did not take the ballot papers out of the room. Election rules say that it is illegal to take out ballot papers from polling station or bring in any ballot papers from outside. The serial number on the ballot papers and the pattern of punched holes on them are used as a check against cheating. We were told to raise objection with the presiding officer if we saw that the conduct of voting did not follow proper EC procedures. I didn’t raise any major objection, nor did the other side apart from our demand to take a closer look at temporary IC used by a voter who had reported loss of IC with JPN. The other case was when somebody whose age was 70 plus came in looking like she was 40 plus. However, one of the clerks said she knew the woman and that she was a registered voter there, so I accepted her explanation. I suspect Botox did the magic on her.

There was a concern about the serial number on the ballot papers which could be traced to individual voters. But it was unfounded, as for the first time in this election, the clerk would not be allowed to write the serial number against the name of the voter in the electoral roll. Hence it was not possible to trace which serial number belonged to who. This ensured total confidentiality of voting and people should thank Bersih for demanding this although the use of indelible ink was cancelled at the eleventh hour.

The three hours in the polling room felt very much like sitting for final year exam. In the beginning people were coming in around one every 30 seconds, but after 4 o’clock there was hardly one every ten minutes! There were a total of 350 voters in Channel 1 and by the time I finished my duty 300 had turned up for voting. The turn-out rate was more than 85% and I think that was very good. The other channel registered much less turn-out. It seems like old folks are more responsible citizens as more of them exercised their right. By 4.30 PM, I passed the baton to a fellow party worker and went out the room to sip some badly needed fresh air. The polling centre would close at 5.00 PM sharp and the gate would be locked. I came out of the centre with an experience which was going to be memorable for the rest of my life. Those three hours were the moment when I was a witness to democracy in action.

…to be continued in Part 4

The Day I was a Polling Agent - Part 2

…Part 2 – Election fever bug in the air

Official campaigning started right after nomination and no time was to be wasted in the next 13 days. We called for first ceramah a few days after nomination. Given that it was on working-day night, the turn-out was fair. Our second ceramah clashed with BN and since our Bilik Gerakan was quite close to theirs, in the interest of security, the police decided to cancel our permit and gave it to the BN guys. Nothing new there since the police had to be fair to them. Determined to hold the ceramah anyway, we moved to a new location and, due to last minute change of venue, the turn-out was less than expected. Not that I mind because there was plenty of extra nasi ayam left.

Two days before the D-day we set up our pondok panas under a big tent by the roadside close to the polling centre. The ruling party had already set up their pondok taking the best spot right next to the junction going to the school which would be used for polling. Their pondok was an airconditioned portacabin sitting firmly on concrete foundation under big blue aluminium roof. We were told that it cost 10 thousand while our pondok was a makeshift tent rented at a cost of around 500 ringgit for 3 days. Clearly we are a poor man’s party!

According to EC rules, the location of pondok panas has to be no less than 50 meters from the polling centre. A draw was done by an EC representative to allocate which party got which spot to build their pondok. We made best use of whatever spot was given to us. Again we set up big screen by the roadside and treated motorists and passers by to our nightly recorded ceramah. While people were watching the ceramah, our volunteers distributed pamphlets and leaflets to housing areas. We got plenty of materials, which came from various sources, to be distributed to houses around our taman. Most were about condemning the present government including pictures of Pak Lah cosying up with some beautiful women – pictures which were widely distributed over the Internet just before the elections. Some were in Chinese and Tamil with pictures of pigs and clippings of articles from Chinese newspapers which we could not understand. We had to practise some form of censorship, lest our aggrasive approach would backfire. Personally I’d rather dissiminate information about our manifesto and what changes we would bring if we manage to govern. But then again, may be it’s fair afterall because they even used taxpayers-funded TV and radio to paint bad image of Opposition leaders.

While distributing the campaign materials, some got rare hostile response but mostly we were given an encouraging smile. At times, dogs barked at us when we approached the postbox in front of the house to slot in the leaflets when their masters were fast asleep. We could tell from meeting people around the housing area that the Indians were very angry with the Government’s treatment of the Hindraf affairs and their own leader, Samy Vellu’s response to it. Many vowed to support the opposition parties as a sign of protest. Their leaders even came to our pondok and promised that he would urge his people to support opposition candidates. The Chinese were less political prefering not to take sides. As business people, they are very pragmatic and would support any party that wins.

The state seat (DUN) in my area was contested by ex-UKM lecturer representing PAS and a contractor Datuk from UMNO. PAS choice was very appropriate as this constituency included two major public universities, a number of IPTs and government research centres. This area probably has the most educated voters and PhDs in the whole of Malaysia. For parliamentary seat, the fight was between BN’s MCA candidate and DAP. The BN candidate was a middle age man while the DAP candidate was a 27 year-old, beautiful single woman lawyer. Her campaign poster was mistaken for a shampoo advertisement! The choice was sooo obvious! They did not even need to campaign hard. But in the spirit of cooperation, we helped look after the rocket posters as well.

There were no untoward incidents in our area. No reports of tearing down opponents posters or bringing down of banners. This I think was a sign of maturity in our politics. In the days leading to the 8th, slowly the roadside turned into green and blue walls of posters and banners especially around junctions and roundabouts. The election fever bug was in the air everywhere.

...to be continued in Part 3

The Day I was a Polling Agent - Part 1

….Part 1 – “Be prepared for the battle”

I was at the office on the day Parliament was dissolved. Shortly after the announcement, an SMS from a fellow party worker arrived on my phone.”Parliament has been dissolved. Be prepared for the battle”, it said. Before that members of our party in the residential area where I live had been mobilised to prepare ourselves for the imminent announcement of the 12th General Election. Pak Lah had been hinting at it for some time and everybody was expecting he would announce it before April. We knew he wanted to deny Anwar the right to contest and we also knew he could not wait to raise fuel price after getting new mandate.

The next day the much awaited date was announced by the Election Commission. Nomination day was 24th February and Polling day was 8th March. There was to be 13 days of campaigning. Thirteen days of juggling between working in the office during the day and climbing trees to hang posters and banners at night. I tried to contribute in whatever capacity I could. I did not think we would win big but it was fun to be at the Bilik Gerakan every night, putting up posters, distributing campaign materials, watching VCD of ceramah projected onto the big screen over the roadside, and simply talking politics into the early morning when our work for the night was done. The big white screen used for the VCD screening reminded me of the 1970’s when Ministry of Information van would go to villages, put up an impromptu cinema in the village field, play the Hindi blockbuster “An Evening in Paris” and stop the show to talk about how to prevent cholera epidemic when the hero was about to give the villain a good bashing. Campaigning on TV had started way before the official campaign period and nobody gave a damn anymore what came on, as the overdose of government propaganda began to cause numbness on the people.

I forced myself up early on the nomination day even though I had slept around 3 o’clock the night before. It was Sunday and the stadium in our area was used as the nomination centre. I joined thousands of people from both sides marching towards the stadium around 7.30 AM. Calls of ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Hidup BN’ were heard from across the stadium with each side trying to outscream the other. One side with green flags chanting the takbir and the other side waving blue flags singing ‘Inilah Barisan Kita’. The only barriers separating them were about a hundred meters of green grass and rows of policemen in blue uniforms standing guard. Each side was ready for the battle and the battle cry filled the otherwise peaceful morning air.

At 9 AM, nomination was opened and only candidates and their seconders were allowed to see the EC officers. It closed an hour later and from 10 AM to 11 AM the session was opened for objection. We waited on the field with hope and nervousness. We knew we were up against the other side who would try to find any mistake in the form to disqualify our candidate by any means. Our worries were not at all unfounded. There was last minute ruling handed down by the EC that looked like sabotage and the candidates on our side were not taking any chances. They complied with every single ruling made by the EC for they fear being disqualified. The EC head had been under fire for making a U-turn on mandatory Inland Revenue stamping of nomination forms. Initially, it was announced that there was to be strict enforcement of the mandatory stamping. The announcement itself was given at 3 PM on Thursday. This caused a lot of inconvenience to the candidates in Kelantan and Terengganu as they only had a few hours to do the stamping before close of business for weekends on Friday and Saturday. There would be no time on Sunday because nomination would start at 9 AM and close at 10 AM. Some of them had to fly to KL on Friday to get their forms stamped just so that they were not disqualified on technicality. But at the last minute, the ruling was cancelled for no reason. We learnt later that many BN candidates in Johor did not manage to get the Inland Revenue stamps and if the ruling was strictly imposed the Opposition would have won the state of Johor uncontested. That perfectly explained the last minute about-turn by the EC.

By noon on Sunday the 24th, the names of qualified candidates were announced. There was a sigh of relief from both sides as none of the candidates was disqualified. They were to fight as gentlemen.

Book Review: Freakonomics - Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

This is yet another exceedingly popular book by economists for the layman that has sold 3 million copies worldwide (up to 2007). This book actually came out before The Undercover Economist. It is co-authored by Steven Levitt, a University of Chicago economics professor, and Stephen Debnur, a writer for The New York Times. The book does not have one single theme and its chapters are independent of one another, so for people like me who like to flip books or magazines from the back, it’s a blessing. I can read the chapters in any order I like and each one offer its own story. Levitt’s research into obscure subjects proves in most cases that conventional wisdom is not always correct and the so-called experts are as guilty as politicians to say things that serve their own self-interest.

His research into everyday issues includes topics such as the effects of legalising abortion on crime rate in America, how teachers in some schools in Chicago cheat in their students’ exam to boost up their own rating and match fixing among Sumo wrestlers in Japan. He also asks why most drug dealers live with their mothers and probes how much your name is connected with your success in life. Although political correctness does not allow people to admit the positive effects of abortion on reducing crime rate, the authors have shown that by terminating unwanted pregnancies, future crime will be reduced. Babies born from these unwanted pregnancies are poorly raised and are likely to become criminals when they reach their teenage years. By cutting off a major supply of potential criminals (killing them before birth), crime rates can be brought down within two decades. Controversial it surely is, but that is what the data shows. And he can say it because he is a researcher, not a politician.

Crime rates and drug dealers go hand in hand. Drawing from a student’s research into the world of crack, the book discusses elaborate corporate-like structure within the hierarchy of drug dealers’ organisation. While those at the top enjoy great rewards, those at the lower rungs can barely pay for their own apartments, hence forcing most of them to live with their mothers. The book also shows trends in babies’ names and their correlation with level of mother’s education. Less successful communities (African-American in US) tend to imitate and adopt names from more successful ethnic groups (White American). Here in Malaysia, for reasons still a mystery to me, many in the Chinese community adopt Christian names even though they are not Christians. Could it be that the names sound more modern, Western and more cultured? It does not quite catch on in the Malay community though because it’s our belief that a good name should have good Arabic meaning. Hence the trend from our forefathers’ time with names like Bulat, Hitam, Kenit, Minah and Timah gave way to Aiman, Danial or Fathihah as the level of education of the Malays improves.

The findings of the studies are mainly from the US and may not apply here. I wish these were replicated here by our own geniuses to suit our own local problems. Alas, we simply do not have enough money to sponsor such things, nor do we have enough supply of freaks like Levitt to crack their head on solving such seemingly useless problems. We are more likely to spend our money on how high tech stuff like brewing teh tarik at zero gravity or flipping roti canai at 350 km above the Earth than looking into such mundane matters.