Monday 2 April 2007

The Really PATHETIC Malaysians: Too Busy to Register to Vote !!

More than half ( 57 %) of voting-age Malaysians (between ages 21 -35 surveyed) did NOT register to vote. Reasons:
  1. TOO BUSY with their work;
  2. Did NOT know where to register and
  3. NOT interested in the election.


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Quote:
"People deserve the government they get."
- Tun Dr. Mahathir

Read here full article by Nisrin Othman in Malay Mail

TOO occupied with work.

That’s the excuse given by those aged between 21 and 35 for not registering as voters.

The Malay Mail conducted a telephone survey yesterday, calling 100 respondents at random to find out whether they had registered as voters following the Election Commission’s statement that 70 per cent of the 4.9 million Malaysians who have yet to register are in that age bracket.

Our findings showed that 57 per cent of those surveyed NOT registered, citing being too busy with their work, did not know where to register and not interested in the election as the excuses.


  • 63 % (of the unregistered respondents) said they were busy and did not have time to register while 21 per cent of them felt that there was ample time to do so.

  • 9 % did NOT know where to register and

  • 7 % REFUSED to become voters.

  • 7 % cited a lack of interest in politics and not knowing which political party to support as the reasons for their refusal to register as voters.

    Most respondents said getting their work done was more important than getting themselves registered as voters.

    Some are students who said their tight schedule was the reason why they did not register.

    They admitted that despite reminders in the media to register, their thoughts were more focused on studies.

    Our future depends on the examinations and involvement in the university and NOT on who wins the election ,” said one respondent.

    Yesterday, Election Commission deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said some 70 per cent of the 4.9 million Malaysians yet to register as voters are aged between 21 and 35 years,

    He said the tight schedules of students at institutions of higher learning and priority on career advancement were cited as the contributing factors.

    We understand that they have priorities but registering as a voter does not take long,” he told reporters after launching a nationwide voter registration exercise for Sikhs by the Malaysian National Sikh Movement (Geraksikh)in Kuala Lumpur.

    Wan Ahmad said that as of December last year, some 15.2 million Malaysians had attained the age of 21 but only 10.3 million had registered as voters.

    NON-VOTERS BY STATE

    • Selangor topped the list with the most number of UNREGISTERED voters at 600,000,

    • Sarawak (450,000),

    • Johor Baru (400,000),

    • Perak (375,000) and

    • Kuala Lumpur (300,000)
    Wan Ahmad lamented that the EC had done its best to get Malaysians to register as voters but found that many people could not be bothered and were not aware of their rights while some like to wait until the last minute.

    He said it would take about three months for the verification process to be completed at each voter registration exercise and that only then would the voter be eligible to vote.


  • COMMENTARY

    From Letter to Editor (Malaysiakini) : Read here for more

    Excerpts:

    "I refer to the letter, Gov't not showing empathy with common man, .....that the government should be more attuned to the public or voters lest they 'abandon ship'.

    .... The Barisan Nasional government has turned into a regime, a regime that is UNACCOUNTABLE to the people.


    How would you explain a government that does not give scant regard to the public whose main lament is simply that the rising cost of living and the effects of the one-sided agreements with the monopolistic toll concessionaires are unfair to them.

    The very nature of a regime is that it does not answer to the public. As it is, the check and balance system of a democratic society is NOT applicable here.

    The Election Commission is NOT an independent commission, voting fraud is common.

    Whistle-blowers and protesters are beaten and detained WITHOUT trial just to stifle opposition and to allow the ruling party a free rein to abuse their power for personal gain.

    Let this humble writer, who is nothing more than an ordinary Malaysian,.. paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, the government should be of the people, for the people and by the people.

    Sadly, this is NOT the case in Malaysia. Not even close..."
    -Jakers Lambert

    1 comment:

    John Lee said...

    A sample of 100 is not representative of the voting population aged 21 to 35; generally for such surveys, a more accurate one would use about 1000 respondents.