Anwar's RM50 democracy [A guide to popular votes and "first past the post" system for Malaysian idiots]

Popular votes had never been the determining factor to form the government, our system is based on "first past the post" system, which gives the party that collects the first simple majority to form the government, same as the Westminster system in U.K. and other Commonwealth countries.- The Phenomenal Chinese Swing: Blame Anwar or Najib? by Hantu Laut

Did you receive a mail asking you to part with your RM50 and in exchange get the democracy that you want and Anwar Ibrahim as your Prime Minister? Well, it's your money so you do with it as you please. There's more RM50 notes from BR1M on the way to you, anyway. But before you do that, or before you do something silly like painting your Facebook black, watch this simple video on the "FPTP" system, something that those people don't want you to know:

UK 2010 Election, Conservative Party got 36% votes but won 47% of the seats.

Labour Party got 29% votes but 40% seats.

Liberal Democrats got 23% votes but only 9% seats.

Independent managed 12% votes but 4% seats.

This is democracy under First-Past-The-Post system.

In 2011, a referendum to reform the electoral system was shot down, First-Past-The-Post system remained. See the results of that referendum h e r e.

Will Anwar Ibrahim please peacefully respect the will of the voters?

Anwar must accept the fact that Najib has defeated him

The following passages were sent to me by a political analyst a while ago.

via email:

"Though Gore came in second in the electoral vote, he received 543,895 more popular votes than Bush in 2000.

"This marked only the fourth election in U.S. history in which the eventual winner failed to win a plurality of the popular vote (after the elections of 1824,1876, and 1888)

"In the 2012 election, House Democrats won a plurality nation-wide with 1.4 million more votes,[9][10] but the Republicans were able to retain a 234-to-201 seat majority due to their advantage in the congressional redistricting process following the 2010 United States Census,[11][12][13] and because many Democratic votes were concentrated into urban and minority districts.[14] In the previous century, on four occasions the party with a plurality of the popular vote was unable to receive a majority in the House, but only once since World War II.[15] The last time was in 1996, where the GOP kept the House for similar reasons.[16][17]."

The point the analyst wants to make is this: that the popular vote is not the deciding factor in a democratic election, not even in the US elections. And certainly popular votes don't suggest fraud, rigging, black magic, etc. If they do, then the Americans would have Al Gore, who, incidentally, was a good buddy for Anwar Ibrahim, as its President instead of Bush. 

In Malaysia, popular votes don't decide who form the government at Federal level. They never did. It is the number of parliamentary seats you win. Simple as that. Malaysians have done that over and over against for 13 general elections and hundreds of by-elections. And if Anwar Ibrahim tells you that BN cheated because Pakatan got more of the popular votes, then he's just found an excuse to stay on in politics instead of keeping his word about quitting if he does not become PM after PRU13. 

Oh, by the way, Washington says it is looking forward to working with Najib, the democratically-elected Prime Minister of Malaysia, again: 

U.S. Department of State

DIPLOMACY IN ACTION

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2013/05/208988.htm#

Congratulations to Barisan Nasional and Prime Minister Najib / Electoral Process

Patrick Ventrell

Acting Deputy Spokesperson

Daily Press Briefing

Washington, DC

May 6, 2013

Daily Press Briefing - May 6, 2013

1:11 p.m. EDT

QUESTION: Elections in Malaysia?

MR. VENTRELL: Yeah.

QUESTION: Do you recognize the victory of the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Najib, or do you support the claim by the opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim that the election were fraudulent?

MR. VENTRELL: Thank you for the question, Nicolas. We congratulate the people of Malaysia on holding the most competitive election in their country’s history. We were pleased to see Malaysians across the political spectrum engaged in the electoral process in large numbers with unprecedented enthusiasm. We congratulate Barisan Nasional and Prime Minister Najib on their victory in Malaysia’s 13^th general election. We look forward to working with the new government once it is formed.

We are aware of concerns about voting irregularities and note that the opposition parties faced significant restrictions on access to the media. Addressing these issues is important to strengthen confidence in the electoral process. And so we call on all parties to peacefully respect the will of the voters.

QUESTION: But you don’t think there needs to be a recount.

MR. VENTRELL: In this instance, we understand that the opposition has expressed some concern about irregularities, and we have some concerns also about restriction on access to the media.

See some Ugly Malaysians (who may not even know Bahasa Malaysia) in Action

In this video, some Chinese-looking men think the Indian-looking man is a phantom voter imported by the Barisan Nasional government from Bangladesh, so they chase him off and threatened to send him back to Timbuktu. If the cops hadn't been there manning the polling centre, you can imagine how ugly things would be for the Bangla-looking man. I don't know if the Chinese-looking men are Malaysians themselves; I mean, the certainly behave like barbarians. And I'm not sure if the poor "metallic black" chap isn't a Bangladeshi. But even if he was, we have an electoral system that's too sophisticated for a Bangla or a barbarian to cheat lah. 

I am concerned. My own kids look like me and not like Ambiga or Haris Ibrahim, who may look Malaysian to me but perhaps not to an Indian national who may think they are his countrywoman and countryman. What if these fuckers decide that my kids don't look like Lim Kit Siang or Hannah Yeoh and therefore they cannot be Malaysians? 

Scenes like The Ugly Malaysian  from Oik's65 Blog played out at many polling stations during the 13th General Election. It's not something we had seen before and it's not something we will get used to. In Gelang Patah, police personnel from the Federal Reserve Unit had to be called in to diffuse a potential racial clash after supporters of one party blocked an Indonesian-looking Malay from casting his vote. 

The authorities must come down hard on these racist so-called vigilantes before things get really ugly.