Campus politic

I used to think stuff related with politics are boring. I never want to know why one would support Barisan Nasional, Rocket or PAS or any other party which I really don't bother their existence. Before I hit the age of 21, voting is never my business. Now I AM 21 and voting becomes my responsibility.

Before my first general election where I have a say in deciding who will be my leaders in this country, I had had several chances to vote too. One of them is voting for student representatives in my university.

There were only two parties in my campus, we call them The Blue team and the Green team. Ever since my first year, we've been given the impression by seniors that The Blue team supports current government, and The Green team opposes. So, we should vote for The Blue team. And, The Blue team also fights for the rights for Chinese students too, something like Barisan Nasional, where 3 race-based parties united under one body, while The Green team doesn't.

You get the picture. It's a known fact that the Chinese and Indians will be voting for The Blue team while only Muslims will vote for The Green team. Well, quite a number of Malays will vote for The Blue team too. And I don't know why.The feeling of not wanting to vote get stronger this year. Maybe it's my fault that I'm not interested in politics, especially politics in Malaysia. I'll talk about my campus politics here.

It's not obvious to me that which team did better job in fighting student's rights for welfare. The Blue team isn't that great at the first place. One of my coursemate was a student representative for last year's board and I never know what he's done in the past one year as our leader. He is my coursemate for earth sake! Maybe we took things for granted? Hope it is so. As for The Green team, I know they want to champion the rights for Muslims only, so I never bother what their manifestos are.

Besides, candidates from both teams never specific in what they actually want to do after being elected. "I'll improve the condition in hostels." In my heart, I asked "How exactly do you want to improve the hostel condition?" "Which sense do you mean?" "Who do you want to meet to actually do this?". I never had a chance to ask the candidates these in public. They don't have Q&A session.

Afterall, I don't think they need to put much effort in campaigning. We vote for the party, not the candidate. It didn't affect much. For two years, The Green team candidate were my friends. They are very friendly Muslims and I believe in their ability as a leader. For two years, The Blue team candidate were my coursemates, coursemates whom we don't know well. So irony.

And I have to vote for The Blue team.

As for Malaysian politics, it's boring because we aren't really allowed to talk about politics in public. Even if both US (or foreign) politics and Malaysian politics were on papers, I find the former is more interesting than the latter and well, sometimes I laughed at what I read regarding US politics, and sometimes I ended my reading with "that ass hole...".

Still, like it or not, I have to make myself well-informed with Malaysian politics before I vote in the coming general election. I have to make sure it's an informed choice. Thanks to debate :-)