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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Posted: 19 Nov 2011 04:12 PM PST

NOV 20 — I shouldn't be amazed, but I am.

Here we are in the year 2011, and astonishingly, there are still people out there who hold antiquated views about who should be able to vote.

Datuk Ei Kim Hock has rightly been castigated for suggesting that Malaysians like me who live abroad should not be allowed to vote as we have "lost touch" with our country. I'm not sure which is the more preposterous claim, that someone like me takes no interest in what's happening in the country, or that someone like me should not be allowed to vote because what I read about Malaysia may be "biased" and "wrong."

Now, I will grant you that there are Malaysians out there who don't take an interest in what's going on in the country, but actually, these people live inside Malaysia as well as outside Malaysia, so should disinterested Malaysians living in the country be barred from voting too?

Until 1918, only men with property could vote in Britain, and it wasn't until 1928 that women were accorded the same voting rights as men. Do people like Datuk Ei really want us Malaysians to go back to a time when voting rights were accorded to certain people only?

Let me remind such people of one simple fact: voting, unlike many other things, is a right accorded to every adult Malaysian citizen. As long as I am a Malaysian citizen I should be able to vote, and the government and the Election Commission (EC) should be doing their utmost to ensure that all able Malaysians are able to vote, no matter where they live.

I know there are plenty of people out there who will blithely say, "Well come back then, if you care about it so much." Let me tell you this: whether I come back to Malaysia or not to vote is not the point.

So let me reiterate the point, in case you missed it: as long as I am a Malaysian citizen (and yes, I am a registered voter) I should be able to vote, and the government and the EC should be doing their utmost to ensure that all able Malaysians are able to vote, no matter where they live.

Don't talk to me about logistics, either. If the government and the EC can cater for students, army personnel and diplomatic staff, then obviously they have found a way to accommodate overseas voting.

Besides, if we can develop the latest technological marvel and include it in our passports and MyKad, then it can't be beyond someone's capabilities to overcome these supposed logistical hurdles.

If we can't work it out ourselves, then why not look at how other countries do it? After all, Britain and the USA - both countries where people vote according to their localities, like ours - allow non-resident citizens to take part in elections. If these two developed countries can do it, then why can't we, a country aspiring to developed nation status, do it too?

As far as I'm concerned, too many excuses have been given on why overseas Malaysians aren't allowed to vote. "Logistical nightmare" is merely one excuse. The other one often trotted out is the "difficulty" in locating overseas Malaysians.

Again, let me ask: do the authorities knock on every single door in Malaysia to ask people to register? Of course not. So why should this be an issue when it comes to overseas Malaysians?

As I've mentioned in a previous article, it really isn't difficult to run an information campaign in this day and age. If the EC can't work out how to do it, I'm sure there are plenty of Malaysians who would gladly set up a Facebook page to do this and publicise any registration exercise!

During the 2008 French presidential elections, an enormous queue wound its way around one of the polling stations in London. I remember looking at that queue in envy. If I'd been born French, there would have been no question whatsoever about me casting my vote in a city outside France. This is quite simply a normal state of affairs.

Of course there are questions about the EC's ability in ensuring overseas votes are collected properly. This, however, shouldn't become another reason why overseas citizens are denied their voting rights. Ensuring elections are held in a fair and transparent manner goes hand in hand with ensuring citizens are able to vote.

Currently overseas citizens — apart from a certain few - don't even have the right to vote. We have been stripped of our rights, disenfranchised, for no reason other than the fact that we live abroad.

Lest they forget, the government and the EC are there to serve the rakyat. The last time I checked, Malaysian citizens have the same rights regardless of where they live (and let's not confuse rights with privileges; there are plenty of privileges that I have given up due to where I choose to live, and that is to be expected). So when will my voting rights be restored to me?

I would dearly love to be able to queue outside the Malaysian High Commission in London to cast my vote for our next elections, and I'm glad that there are more sensible politicians who are backing the call to enable overseas Malaysians to vote.

So come on, EC, it's time for Malaysia to join the developed world. Let people like me vote for the leaders of our country without having to plan an impromptu trip back.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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The poo phenomena (sung to ‘The Funk Phenomena’)

Posted: 19 Nov 2011 04:01 PM PST

NOV 20 — One in every eight children in Hong Kong is constipated. This is not a pretty topic served up as dinner conversation but recent findings have shown that the problem is causing a stink among our little ones.

Researchers at the Chinese University believe that one of the reasons is because children put off using the toilet due to embarrassment or by spending too much time on other pursuits (The Standard, Oct 21, "Don't delay on toilet trouble, children told" ).

Staying apart from their parents, spending more than two hours a day on homework (15 per cent) and sleeping less than seven hours a day (17 per cent) also appear to contribute to constipation.

Of the 2,318 primary school students interviewed between March and June, 12.2 per cent suffered from constipation. Of the 200 students who did not live with their parents, 28.8 per cent experienced this condition.

Doctors say that therapy, treatment and alterations to the diet will help them recover. Serious constipation will take up to a year to treat.

I was surprised by the high numbers. I mean, if you, like me had attended schools with absolutely filthy toilets, then it would make sense to delay using the toilet until you got home.

I remember holding my breath every time I had to walk past the toilet, which was on the way to the school canteen. The floor was perpetually wet and at least one of the eight squatting stalls would be clogged. Poorly aimed stools and urine were a daily affair. This was at an urban primary school in Petaling Jaya.

Granted we were young then but the situation did not improve when we reached secondary school. Only this time the school tasked students to clean our own toilets. That's right. Each classroom was assigned a stall and every day two girls were assigned to scrub it with soap powder, a toilet brush and *shudder* use the short hose that was attached to the tap inside the stall (same one that some used to wash themselves) to rinse the soap away.

You can understand why some of us chose not to use the toilet unless we had no choice. And in order not to have to use the toilet, we drank less. It is a vicious cycle. I hope you are not reading this over a meal.

The thing is, Hong Kong toilets are surprisingly clean. Even public toilets. I was relieved when I visited my son's kindergarten and saw how well maintained it was. So avoiding a dirty loo at school should not be an issue.

The research findings also mentioned that children who have only three or four meals with their parents a week tend to suffer from constipation (16 per cent). I take this to mean that perhaps there is not a balanced diet being provided or not having a parent hover over them to ensure they eat their fruit and vegetables.

It is common for working parents to return home after 8pm, long after children have had their dinner. In an interview with The Standard, researchers were quoted saying that parents play an important role in helping prevent constipation from becoming an embarrassing issue for their children. I for one took for granted how much work goes into making, um, regular deposits.

We have had our own poo issue as well, though not yet related to the factors above. Up until recently, our son enjoyed regular visits to the loo.

Then along came nursery school and for reasons that still befuddle me, constipation struck. We went from twice-a-day motions to once in five days. He ate his fruit, yoghurt and drank fluids but something else was happening — he was holding it in!

There was the typical warning signs: staining on the underpants (up to five pairs daily), bloating, lack of appetite and straining. By day five we were forced to resort to an enema, which is awfully traumatic on a three-year-old and his parents.

We took steps to inform his school teachers of our problem and the measures we were taking at home. We asked they provided encouragement when he needed to go and exercise patience if he had an accident. They were wonderfully supportive.

Then finally, after weeks of tears, we found our solution: a reward chart. I printed a free chart off the Internet with pictures of a little boy sitting on his potty and the words "I pooped!" underneath. Each successful attempt meant colouring in one star on the chart. It was a surprisingly simple strategy.

After five coloured stars, Ishan got to pick out a toy from the shop. He made sure he collected big on his first successful attempt, picking out a big truck that cost three times what we would normally spend on a toy. But a promise was a promise and it was worth it.

It has been three months since and we have now got his act down to a once-in-two days affair. We never thought that poo, or rather the absence of it, could cause so many problems. Knowing exercise contributes to healthy bowel movements, we religiously keep to Ishan's playtime with his friends in the evenings.

The exercise plus all that gulping of water (it helps to watch his friends drink from their bottles) works wonders. We're definitely not scheduling any after school activities for a while. Meanwhile, I still can't get Armand Van Helden's "The Funk Phenomena" (1994) out of my head every time we hit a dry, hard spell.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Ahad, 20 November 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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