Things They Should Have Thought of BEFORE Election Day

While I enjoy living in the States where generally, things work like they are supposed to, this is one of the times I wish I was back home. I wish I had been back to attend the many ceramahs. I wish I had been able to feel the electricity of thousands of Malaysians coming together for our common good. And darn it, I wish I had been able to vote. Although looking at The Star Online lately has been an eyesore, I'm glad they brought up the subject of overseas Malaysians wanting to vote in today's "Oh, for the chance to cast vote by post."

As the reports on the ground come in, one has to wonder why the following were not brought up prior to the all-important Election Day.

Access for the disabled and the elderly. Don't the people setting up these polling stations have parents? You would think at least one 50-something poll station worker would have said, hey, how are the older folks going to climb up 4 flights of stairs to cast their ballots? We are notorious for not having ramps or disable-friendly facilities. I've had to carry my kids in their strollers up flights of stairs and over many longkangs. Looking on the bright side, I'm heartened to note there were people willing to physically lift the disabled up to the polling stations. Finally, the Star reporter noted, "Another voter Koh Hoon Eng said she was stranded for three hours before she was assisted to her polling stream. However, the problem was resolved an hour later when Returning Officer M. Ashaari Othman transferred a polling stream to the ground floor of the school, much to joy of the elderly folks." After 4 hours of waiting, I don't think joy is what they felt. Try relief, or perhaps the urge to smack the Returning Officer on the head for not acting sooner.

Hacking into the EC's database. Why, oh why, could this not have happened sooner? All those computer geeks out there, and only now does Mr Ong surface with his revelations. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad and awed that he spent the time to run almost 600 records through his script. But the timing certainly could have been a little better! Perhaps a court order could have been filed and the EC might have fixed all those duplicate records! Wait... the EC fix something? More like them being used to fix these elections... sigh.

So now we wait. A thought for all those hard-working volunteers going through stacks and stacks of ballots; a cog in the wheel of democracy. My mother is one of them.