Tuesday 26 August 2008

Permatang Pauh: voting in Seberang Jaya

Absolutely good weather this morning when I left the house. Bright and shiny. Had to park quite a distance away and walk to my polling station, the Sekolah Kebangsaan Seberang Jaya in Taman Siakap. There's one observation I must make about Taman Siakap. The Chinese population here is probably higher than other areas in this town and I met a number of old familiar faces among the voters.

The roads outside the school was a hive of activity. Nothing rowdy, everybody very civilised. The policemen on duty here have an easy job. Maybe a boring job. Nevertheless, an envious job. The Pakatan party members who were still urging people to vote for their candidate (Barisan party members were hardly in sight although there was plenty of their banners and buntings) were going about their businesses with such politeness. Such an air of confidence.

Voters felt extremely bored waiting in line. Of the five lines at the polling station, one couldn't help wondering why the first line was almost devoid of a queue while the other four lines were maybe 20 to 50 people deep. Anyway, I waited almost an hour to do my duty. Who did this person (right) vote for? He was one of the lucky few that had the chance to go into the first line.

At about 9.30am today, who did I see rolling into the polling station? None other than roly-poly himself, the blardy Peh Moh in his songkok and trying to shake hands with the voters. There's no enthusiasm anywhere. Maybe, one or two people shook his hands but definitely, I didn't see anyone greet him happily or called out to him. People just smiled politely. But really! Is a candidate allowed to do that? Walk into the polling stations on polling day and greet the voters? Isn't this an extension of campaigning? I thought all personal campaigning was supposed to have ended last midnight.

My job was done at about 10 o'clock. Outside the school, past the police line, PKR members were still politely approaching me to say their Thank Yous for coming to vote. Still an air of quiet confidence.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You're right man!  No enthusiasm at all towards Tua Pui Peh Moh by the Seberang Jaya folks of all races.  I was in Seberang Jaya voting this morning and saw people gave only dead-fish hand shakes to him although he tried to put up a brave front by grinning widely.  Looked quite pitiful in a way.  Actually he shouldn't be allowed to linger on in the compound to fish for votes.  It should suffice for him to just be an ADUN and serve the local community.  Perhaps he should join Pakatan  for a career move after losing this time.