Monday, July 30, 2007

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.

6 comments:

koln_auhc said...

Hmm, seems like it's a fight between (Microsoft and open source)and (BN and Opposition)

The opposition and open source differ quite a lot if you look at it but there's one important thing that both BN and Microsoft can rely on to hang on to power.

A base of risk-adversed supporters. These people do not support both windows or bn by default. They are more afraid of the uncertainty of changes in the system. This is the perfect group to be manipulated.

Your points there can help gain political awareness among people who accept facts and argue by logic but not necessarily the other side of the population who are the reverse of this.

I look forward to how the opposition can convince this group. This should be the gauge for the opposition.

flygoon said...

There is one more group of people that would be played right into the hand of the BN. The simple minded forks who still think along the racial lines.

These are the group of people that have supported BN for the past 50 years. If there were no awareness amongst these people, BN will continue to rule Malaysia.

UMNO, MCA, and MIC know this, that's why they have never hesitated in making issues racist and waving kerises.

Shawn Tan said...

koln: what can i say.. i'm concerned about malaysian politics and technology politics.. there is a clear line drawn in the sand between Microsoft and Open Source..

however, this is not the case with BN and the Opposition.. most people choose the Opposition because it is not BN.. but I think that is just sad and speaks volumes on the impotency of our Opposition..

hopefully, Opposition 2.0 will be better..

Shawn Tan said...

flygoon: you are right.. but the poison spread on both sides of the fence.. look at DAP, it's main agenda is race (bangsa malaysia) and has been so for decades..

but there are just too many people poisoned, that I don't know how any political party can reach out to them.. and like poison, it spreads..

the race wedge has been driven in by our government for a whole generation.. i'm not sure if we can even pull it out in our lifetime..

flygoon said...

I have had an idea that the opposition Malaysia could definitely use to gather strengths and information in drawing up substances to position themselves as the legitimate "alternative" to the rotten BN.

IMO, the power of the blog has not been fully exploited by politicians in Malaysia yet. In this regards, they could learn from the Open-source movements.

Make use of the bloggers to draw up ideas, policies, etc to form and advertise their ideology. Of course, ideas and suggestions are to be regulated just like how Open-Source movements is regulating contributions from contributors.

What is your take on this?

Shawn Tan said...

haha.. you didn't actually finish reading my blog did you?? if you did, you will see that i've already stated 3 points, including what you have just said..