Criteria for Voting in Malaysia's Upcoming General Election

1. Race?
2. Religion?
3. Political Party?
4. Track records of candidate?In view of the 'vibrant mood' surrounding our political arenas of late; with many underlying activities signaling our general election could be any moment now; I began to recall my past 3 voting experiences at the St. Francis Institution adjacent to Padang Pahlawan, Melaka.

Collectively speaking, my major criteria of voting in the past 3 occasions had always been - political party! Be it ruling or opposition!

As I was born in the 60's, after independence, my relationship with fellow student friends of other races and religions was good and comfortable; having nurtured from within our school curriculum. Except for religious classes where non-muslims either attend their mother toungue i.e. Manderin or Tamil; our teachers and we ourselves'd hardly mention about sensitive issues arising from different races and religions during our daily school activities. I had even represented Melaka states level in MSSM soccer with majority of Malay team-mates and our relationship was cordial and sweet. We'd shared the joy of winnings and the agony of defeats together as a team unit where some of my then teammates had even made it to the states and national levels in the 80's. Moreover, it would be against United Nations' Convention of Human Rights to have prejudice against another race and/or religion!

Political parties? No, not for me; not even parties within collisions. To me, any political party having registered officially with the Registrar of Society is ok and can be considered. This is because if they were not appropriate or would have been a threat to the national security of our plural society, the Registrar would not have approved their applications, as in the case of a communist party.

Track records of candidates? Yes and no!

What is the worst that could have happened to a corrupted Malaysian politician?

In Malaysian political culture and history, we have had many high profile conspiracies went in and out our courtroom only to be thrown out later by the Lordship on technical grounds of ambiguities. The worst that could have happened was that he/she be replaced; like we'd many elected candidates "advised" out of office because of sex scandals, money politics, and corruptions etc. No death penalty or even life imprisonment for corrupted politicians as far as my memory could recall.

However, few years down the road, he would reappear as if nothing had ever happened before. No wonder our ex-Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam; whom together with Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad forms the ever infamous 2M Administration during the early 80's had a famous quote: Politic is the art of making impossible things possible! How true!

However, this time around, I hope majority of our eligible voters would be very cautious when voting for the right candidates to become our next batch of elected representatives....

Firstly, if he/she was a rookie to our political arena with mature outlook, eloquent and bilingual the least , minimum college qualifications and conspiracy-free; by God's gracious we sould normally consider giving him/her a maiden chance.

After all we need a young breed to replace the veteran; sooner or later. Furthermore, in any situation, nobody shall be indispensable for our beloved country ( eg. Tun Dr. Mahathir ) or we would face with leadership crisis with the sudden passing of great leaders.

However, if he/she was a current or ex-candidate, we shall dig further than the aforesaid criteria. Firstly, his past track records must be justifiable to be reconsidered to another term as a representative of the RAKYAT. Was he involved in any conspiracies, be it with abuse of power, position, money; practicing double standards or involved in sex scandal?

Next, during his/her tenure, has he/she carried his/her duties well, meaning people's welfare above owns self? Was he/she willing to forgo self interest including political career for the sake of people's welfare & interest?

Most important of all, was he/she a racist, religious fanatic or both?

Should we posses the slightest doubt about this ex-candidate, we should opt for another seemingly 'clean' one. For I rather give the other a chance hence "reprimanding" this ex-candidate for non-performable records. They said inpolitics; you seldom get a second chance! After all these pending elected representatives are our servants; we, the RAKYAT shall decide, dictate and have the final say as to who shall qualify to manage our beloved nation and the enormous funds out of her; shouldn't we?

When a caliber candidate is hence elected, be it the ruling or opposition bench; he/she is expected to support the right policy making from the ruling foe even as an opposition member and oppose the ambiguous one even as a ruling member of the House. In short, the welfare and rights of the Rakyat preceded all.

The recent ruthless handling of the Melaka State poultry farmers and the Auditer-General Tan Sri Amrin Buang's report on those series of misuses and mismanagement of Government funds; or rightfully the peoples' fund would certainly have an enormous bearing towards the outcomes of the coming election. The current administration ought to be held responsible and accountable and heads must roll in order to be justified.

We have just celebrated our 50^th year of Merdeka; it is hope that we would have another smooth election campaign towards making Malaysia a plural, united in diversity nation that even foreigners envied and locals held our heads high for!