Ijok who what?

The Government recently revealed that 70% of the youths in Ijok will most likely vote for the Keadilan candidate. So their tact is to "sell" their candidate to the Chinese. To win the by election, they have to concentrate on the Chinese. So they tell the Chinese something along these lines, "Parthiban will work for you. He will serve all races equally. He wont just concentrate on one race."

Then they realise, CRAP! the Chinese are only a minority, even if we overpromise to these people, we might still lose the election, so they extended their MO. They pledge lots and lots of money to the sleepy town of Ijok (some of us are like, I WHAT? Batang Berjuntai where?)And out of the RM30 million pledge to Ijok, some 30%-40% will be spent on building/refurnishing/improving mosques, religious schools and other religious things/places. Then they tell the Malay people there, "Look!Look at how we are spending so much money on Muslims! Vote Parthiban! He wont neglect the Malays! He will serve the Malays well too."

So it does make you wonder doesnt it? If the survey did not find that 70% of the youths in Ijok would have elected the Keadilan candidate, chances are the BN would not even have bothered to address them. After all, 30-40% of the money pledged is used to upgrade the religious facilities for the Muslims. The Chinese would probably benefit from the roads they are upgrading or some other things they have decided to tinker with. I wondered what happened to the Indians...too small a minority so no one in concentrating on them?

The whole by election is nothing but a fiasco. There is the usual over promising and under delivering. The ones who have the money throw in the money. And those who do not, will play the flaws aspect of the opposing candidate. If we were to think about it, it should be more about the candidate and less about the party in which the candidate is from dont you think? Of course Parthiban will have more money to back up his campaign..he is from BN, the ruling party. And Of course Khalid has less money. He is after all from the Anwar Ibrahim and wife led party.

But in terms of their qualifications and what they have achieved so far, I have to say, Tan Sri Khalid is far more impressive. Parthiban was only a teacher. Sure, he was born there, and sure one Indian man, one Chinese man and on Malay man have been interview (numerous times but always the same 3 people) that Parthiban is a good man. Humble man.
But capable of bringing Ijok into further development? With no knowledge of the corporate world the economic or the ways of improving the infrastructure? Sure he will have the money, but will he know how to USE the money?

Khalid has been the forefront of a few big corporations and institutions. And he still heads quite a few of them. No one can doubt his business sense. No one can doubt his skills and abilities....he may not have the cash now, but with his business acumen, I am sure he will be able to find the funds. His only setback is, he is from Keadilan.

If only Keadilan had a fair share of the Government funds, then perhaps the by election will be more about what each candidate can do, and less about who has more posters, who is the "humble man" and how Atlantuya's murder has dented the credibility of some politicians in the Ruling Party.

Its sad to know, its still about race segregation. Its 2007 people. Its time to move forward. Move towards integration. Not segregation.