Opposition 2.0

Seems like the old adage is true. It's impossible to keep a secret in this world. Our main opposition party, DAP, is getting an injection of new blood. One of the most prominent Malaysian bloggers, JeffOoi, has made the decision to leave Gerakan and join DAP. [here and here]

I have consistently complained about how irrelevant our opposition were. For all the failings of our ruling party, the opposition falls into the same trap and do not provide any difference to our main ruling party. That's the reason why nobody bothers to vote them into power. Better the devil you know than the one you don't [comic].

I've also suggested in my previous blogs [here and here] that we need new blood in parliament. The old politicians are no longer relevant in this day and age. Just look at how they're mis-handling all the modern issues such as the issue of online bloggers and creative content with their archaic thinking and heavy handedness. I doubt that many of our senior parliamentarians can connect with the YouTube and WoW generation.

I really hope that this is an indication of the new Opposition 2.0. We need an Opposition that can show the ability to run a country. Senior citizens like Lim Kit Siang should now retire and sip tea at the local kopitiam. He has done his bit for the country, but he is now largely ignored by the younger generation as he is just as infected with the same bug as the ruling party. They're all products of a similar but distant system from the rest of us.

I'm hoping that the new Opposition will provide some critical updates:

• 1.0: Question everything that the Gahmen does.
  2.0: Make solid counter proposals to everything that the Gahmen does and force the Gahmen to steal your ideas. This shouldn't be too difficult.
  
• 1.0: Check everything that the Gahmen says.
  2.0: Double check everything that the Gahmen says and call them on every idiocy that they show. We need to stop stoopid name-calling in parliament.
  
• 1.0: Focus on racial rights and politics.
  2.0: Forget about racial issues and focus on what's truly important. Present solutions that fix the problems that present themselves using the best logical method. Don't muddle the solution with racial issues.
  
• 1.0: Make a lot of noise and raise issues in parliament.
  2.0: Make a lot of noise and raise issues with the people. Nobody knows what you do in parliament because it's not publicly broadcast. Show the people that you're actually doing your job.

All in all, I just want to see a competent opposition and a more accountable one. Give the Gahmen a solid competition and make them sweat. This will just result in better government for the people. The current opposition just doesn't show that it's a viable alternative to our ruling Gahmen. Kick all the version 1.0 politicians out of parliament and replace them with the version 2.0 ones.

After writing this blog, I've come to realise that all these improvements require a lot of man-power to make work. There needs to be working groups and a lot of people behind the scenes who scurry about getting the numbers and writing up the solutions. Unfortunately, it's illegal to draft in university interns to help (not officially anyway). So, let's think of some technological solutions!

1. Start a site where the web connected 2.0 generation can voice their concerns. Take a page from social content sites (like YouTube, Reddit, Digg) where people can stick up suggestions and other people can vote on it. Trust the people to moderate the content themselves. Of course, I'm not suggesting we forget the people who are not connected. I'm giving a suggestion to improve the use of the Net generation.
2. It can also be used to muster the anonymous coward to help do essential research to support any ideas. Link the complaints to forums where people are encouraged to discuss important issues. Hopefully, some gems will come to light and bring in some useful points and evidence to support a case. All information would need to be vetted and checked by someone though. However, it should reduce the number of grunts needed to do digging.
3. It can also serve as a central aggregator for various Malaysian political blog sites. This can serve as a union of Malaysian bloggers to get everyone talking. This sounds very fluffy, but it's important to put noise makers together. Individually, they make a lot of noise. But taken together, they will be deafening. It's just taking the saying bersatu teguh, bercerai roboh to the new media.

Hehe, hopefully this will result in better politics and politicians for our country. It's just so shameful to be a Malaysian these days. Okay, this may sound a bit like a silly and politically naive blog, but I'm a technology minded person.