Can you predict the future?

I actually have tag debts to repay but I'd better get this out before Election Day. ;o) rinnah's probably one and only politically inspired post. *cough* Beware. Fire and brimstone ahead! Read at your own peril! Lawl.

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Back to my title. I actually CAN'T predict the future, and I'm betting that neither can you. No one knows if the establishment will be sent back with the same / bigger / lesser majority or if the anti-establishment will manage to nick some prime seats away from the establishment. I'm not a socio-politico blogger, and I'll leave that to the experts.

But what I do wanna blog about is the sorry state of the average Malaysian young adult.

Much as it pains me to say it, I am horrendously shocked that the average young adult that I know (family, friends, colleagues) is not in the least interested about the upcoming election. Like hello? Did you know that you have a social responsibility to vote? It's a privilege to be able to vote and it's a privilege that people in other parts of the world fought and died to have. The American suffragettes marched and protested until women were given the right to vote. What about the blacks? And the African living under apartheid rule? All those people in the nations that keep on having military coups? And here you are, a pampered Malaysian young adult, throwing away such a precious thing because you aren't bothered.

I am sad to say that those I know are all part of this apathethic bunch. They're not voting on Saturday because they can't. They can't because they're not registered to vote. They didn't register to vote because they couldn't care less, because they couldn't be bothered to take a few minutes of their time and get registered at the Post Office. Sorry, but you're just plain lazy! But yet, some of them are the same people telling me, "Oh, you should cast your vote for so-and-so!" I will promptly turn around and tell them to their face, "Back off the subject, you have no right to speak out about the government and the election because you're not a registered voter." Don't come and tell me your two sen worth of opinion if you're not going to do anything about it. Don't be so high and mighty and talk about the government or opposition and bla bla bla on about corruption or benefits.

What's worst of all is how many of them tell me, "One vote doesn't count for much anyway. So why should I register?" Did you know if you added up all those worthless one votes you could turn a minority into a majority? It is precisely this sort of thinking that has mired Malaysia into a situation of no change! These are eligible young adults well into their mid and late twenties I am talking about. They are not youth just newly eligible to vote. These are folks who have already missed voting at the last election and will do so again on Saturday.

Then there are the others who don't even know the difference between the establishment and the anti-establishment. They prefer to be clueless about anything and everything remotely political, prefering to live life in a pleasant haze, trusting that whichever government is in power will take care of them. All I can say is good luck to them!

Just imagine, in twenty years' time, these very same people will be the middle-aged and senior citizens of Malaysia. And their children will follow in their footsteps. By then, I think you'd be lucky to get even a 10% voter turnout out of the whole population of Malaysia. Why? Because all would not be registered to vote - either out of choice or because they're underaged. Humph!

Okay. End of rant. rinnah is going to do her duty and vote on Saturday and hopefully, that will be the end of any political-type ranting on this blog.