Wednesday, February 14, 2007

What can the man on the street do?

I am sure anyone who reads my ramblings here would know how I feel about public demonstrations and how useless I think it is.
I am sure many of you have different thoughts on it.

A good friend of mine had this to say about public demonstrations- that it was the only way that the uneducated man can show the Government how unhappy he is with a certain policy. And by being out on the streets and in a group, the Government will take notice. After all, since they are uneducated, they would not know how to write a petition or have the opportunity to speak to a MP or do all those things a "smarter", educated man can do.

So I asked her, how effective have all these demonstrations been? Whether it were a peaceful or unruly one. The answer of course is it was ineffective. Toll rates continue to go up, petrol prices continue to surge forward and in all honesty, the Government really could not be arsed that you took time off to sweat under the sun, shout until your voice was hoarse and walked until your legs could not take it anymore. And I think some of them in the Government thought, "All rite!This is my opportunity to kick some of those opposition people's ass!" So they send FRU units to well, kick their asses.


Like, how is effective is THIS?

So she turned to me and asked me quite huffily " Well, what can a man who is unhappy with what the Government has done, do to show his unhappiness?"

To me its quite easy. I asked her if she has registered herself to vote. She said No. And asked me why. I said if I were truly unhappy with the administration of the country, the first thing I would do is to register myself as a voter.(Yes, I WILL register myself before the next election) And then I will vote for whichever opposition party there is which will stand up for me and agrees with my views. The more these opposition parties have a say in the Government, the more these little napoleans are kept on their toes.
Now they are outnumbered and outvoted. So whatever it is they want to disagree on, they cannot do anything about it. Because Majority always wins. That is what democracy is all about.

Or you can join the opposition party. Be a member. Let those who are educated lead you. Let them speak for you.

Do not waste your time marching the streets. No one cares. You're just causing a traffic jam. And I hate traffic jams.

So, many of you may not agree with me. But I think at least I have an idea which may actually work. I may actually do something which will help change some things I am unhappy with. Will it take long before the majority party can be ousted? Yes, it will. But it is not impossible.

Think about it.

Register yourself. Election is right around the corner.

1 comment:

harrylee said...

definitely our country needs to wake-up ... especially the kind where you get totally shocked out of bed and knock into something ... and not the alarm kind, where you can keep pressing the snooze button ...

on street protests, while i do agree with you that it is probably a waste of time ... it does help to carry the sentiment - all the way to election, if possible ... and in a way, i think it does tell people that 'hey, you are being screwed and you can DO something about it' ... (at least it got you thinking about it and blogging about the futility, and thinking about better ways to do it) ... for too long, we have been 'snoozing'