OCT 4 — "I need help. Pakatan needs you."
I was starting to sink. Having swum across half the length of a South African dam, I realised I did not have the legs to get to the other side. My friend, a very strong swimmer, fearing I was not holding my own, raced back close till he could shout to me: Are you OK?
Was I OK? Hell no, but I was not about to ruin an idyllic summer afternoon with the girls rooting for us at the other end by needing assistance.
Somehow, more like a morbid fear of death in my twenties, I toiled and slaved till I did make it to write this column.
Where does one learn not to ask for help?
Growing up as the youngest of four children in a Tamil-speaking home, attending Malay-language schools with a majority of English-speaking friends, asking for help and guidance would have been second nature.
But I was a curious case.
There was this innate need to be "well" in all situations without help. I memorised the multiplication table before turning six because my 10-year-old brother could do it. Always reading grades above, I did not have teachers in primary school explain to me further how tanks changed the nature of battles and the outcome of World War One. This also included not telling anyone when the taman (residential area) bully beat me up senseless when I was 13.
While I realise that this defiance and self-belief has set me forward in so many arenas, it almost killed me a few decades ago. Not asking for help is not a sign of strength, it is a weakness readying itself to topple you into an abyss.
That in itself is no revelation. The revelation is that learning to ask for help is a skill, an ability that one is learns over a lifetime of observation and humility.
Pakatan's days of waiting
A four-storey building, which is exactly two shoplots connected, our national headquarters does not fill the street with a sense of dread, or intimidation even to the wine shop attendant next door.
Sitting in it, seeking to unseat an unforgiving Goliath in Putrajaya — with the fog of political war impending and closing in — one is dwarfed by the occasion.
All staff double up, at least, and the routine is anyone who can, then has to. When no one can, then someone has to fake it till they make it.
The irony is many Umno divisions have more firepower, even if without the delivery.
So it does amuse me with a slight sharp ache when an observing public asks Pakatan Rakyat to excel better at everything; from executing reforms and plans with minimum resources and access, to picking the best election candidates with ability, expertise, experience, no skeletons in the closet and the charm to fundraise for an election and contest using largely unpaid volunteers.
In my years in the school cadet infantry we'd sing a song about fighting off bullets with a cangkul (hoe), but it really was about having a go-go attitude, not actually seeking to cook an omelette without an egg, pan or stove but by holding a wishful wet matchstick.
The quartermaster's checklist
Inspect the to-do list.
Carving up the 222 parliamentary seats equally among the three — PKR, the DAP and PAS — without factoring other allies would give each party 74 seats.
Each seat on average would require 800-plus election or counting agents in total. That's just to make sure the number of votes are correct, and everyone gets a fair election in each voting stream. Close to 60,000 people in total. That's one party. No one gets paid. Weekends are given up to get the training to perform the task right and not to miss any of the procedural demands, since more likely than not the Election Commission officials are not going to rush to help you.
That is just to ensure fair elections. The number of people showing up and growing at every proceeding Bersih (the movement for free and fair elections) rally tells me that many share my fears.
The election paraphernalia have to be produced, prepared, shared and promoted. There are varying challenges self-evident in this endeavour.
Food has to be served at the operation rooms. There is no payment, but letting volunteers live without tea and packets of nasi lemak at midnight before they get home, check on their kids, sleep and wake up for their actual jobs which pay, is just rude.
But as one activist told me before, pisang goreng doesn't grow on trees.
Culminating with voting day, information will be drowned in a disinformation flood, giving the impression to people depending on which side of town they are and when, that the country is heading to the gutter or that there are activists, nannies and lorry drivers planning a communist state or that the Islamists are seeking to steal Chinese New Year.
It's OK if none of it makes sense, it is actually better that is does not. In all the confusion, you should stick to the only solution you've ever known, you are then reminded before you trudge to your voting station.
Social media potentially provides the avenue to the disenfranchised and outflanked opportunities to "change the game", but it relies on one requirement, active participants.
Traditional campaigning versus a community campaign using the Internet is akin to the competition between a fire-truck water-hose and a bucket brigade competing to put flames out.
While one side can always buy the flashiest, nosiest and "perception-index friendly" fire-engines, and it does work, the other side has to rely on the willingness of the many to pass buckets of water along queues of people.
It works only if it takes root, but when it does, oh my what a sight to behold! It is a mighty roar of everything possible, capable of even redefining fire.
Geometry and fits
The Pakatan plan requires the participation of millions, not just their votes. If it is just your vote that matters, wouldn't we have had a change of government several general elections ago?
If you believe, then you must act.
To join the cast of millions in this Cecile B. DeMille-sized production. It has to be "The Greatest Show on Earth" in that brief period to result a history-defying with zero histrionics election win.
So yes, I am asking for your help.
Print something, share it, like it, call someone, tell someone, ask people to act and tell people why you are acting. If you want something to happen you must act, it is just not good enough to come on voting day. You must tell yourself daily that you are invested to making sure the elections will be safe. Or tell people they will be safe, or tell someone, something.
Do something. Then ask others to do also. Thank them. Thank them for the things they will do next, encourage them. Tell them they are not alone.
All devils, whether you know them or not, build their strength on despairing those rising to speak. That the silence of one will lead to the obeisance of the many. And cruelly, the obedience of some, crippling wills.
A thank you before ending
I don't want any Malaysian to be grateful to Pakatan. So many citizens have already extended their hands and hearts to the developments of the last few decades. Pakatan has not done enough compared to them, and there is always more to do. Even if some of the acts are noble, it is the job of a political party to serve.
Election after election, a high percentage supports us, through thick and thin. The first-past-the-post system plays down the votes that have arrived from every nook of this federation.
The strongholds have suffered for the expression of political support. For by voting someone in on principle, you are condemned with an MP with principle. A relentless federal government never fails to exhibit the price of dissent on both MP and constituents.
And regular people don't get to call themselves MP, which is why you are amazing.
Despite having little to offer, you have stuck with us.
For that Pakatan is grateful.
However, this long journey — and an end long time coming — has to see itself over the final hurdles.
Pakatan will not cross the finish line without those who have stayed strong, and those inclined today to want to be strong. It is not votes per se which will win the day, but the will of the Malaysian people.
The will to act. Act, and voting day will only be a formality.
Help me, get me to the other side, my legs are weary.
* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.
The Malaysian Insider :: Food
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LOS ANGELES, Oct 4 — South Korean rapper Psy can keep his shirt on after his goofy "Gangnam Style" failed for a second week running to conquer the summit of Billboard's Hot 100 hit parade, albeit by a slight margin.
KUALA LUMPUR, 4 Okt — Parlimen hari ini meminta Ahli-ahli Jawatankuasa Kira-kira Wang Negara (PAC) supaya tidak mengeluarkan sebarang kenyataan sehingga tamat pembentangan dalam Dewan Rakyat.
SHAH ALAM, 4 Okt — Putrajaya akan menggunakan tanah yang tidak digunakan di seluruh negara untuk menjalankan skim perumahan mampu milik 1 Malaysia (PR1MA) bagi kumpulan berpendapatan sederhana, umum Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin pada hari ini.