Manek Urai .. the aftermath ..
Even though PAS won with a wafer-thin margin, but that's not the whole story. Pointers from a blogger http://wandering-troubadour.blogspot.com/ shows quite an alarming picture of a desparate entity to hold on to power .. no matter what. An excerpt from the said article ..
" .. Armchair warriors who wrote comments on the Manik Urai by-election sitting comfortably from their study rooms based on information that they skimmed through the Internet at best hit the outer ring of the target if not missing hitting the board at all! It is interesting to note that many did simply just that -- write from afar basing their opinions on those who make a living on writing news.
I was there smack in the middle of the war, espionages and counter-strikes. And BN has never been dirtier.
The amount of money that changed hands with voters was simply unbelievably high that almost every household can have a one-month holiday to savour their fortune. Only the Almighty knows the extent of their guilt and no mortal soul can claim that what they did was immoral, as nobody knows who voted for whom, at least for most of us that is.
It is amazing what money can buy. Maybe RM50 per voter did not work anymore but RM500 hooked even the very hearts that loathe corruption. They reason in their heads that it was a gift and hence free from any sin whatsoever associated with it. It was a meagre sum to the haves but a windfall to the haves-not. For a household with three voters, they took home a month’s equivalent of a wage.
But in a climate of distrust alternative plans were laid in abundance. Coming from multiple sources, voters were spoilt for bounties. Some walked away with three sets of gifts each giving a person’s take-home present of RM1,500. All one had to do was to wait for the go-between to approach him or her. It was a case of supply outstripping demand.
Keeping people (read voters) at poverty level and on the brink of starvation almost always pays in the end. They can easily be bought. After all it is not often such a by-election comes their way. Opportunity comes-a-knocking, it is a gift from above.
RM500 per voter was at most RM5Million. Considering three sources each armed with RM10Million, a total of RM30Million were spent with RM15Million going directly to voters and the rest as usual fall off the gravy trains into the hands of local warlords ....."
Read the rest at http://wandering-troubadour.blogspot.com/2009/07/other-side-of-story.html
Even though PAS won with a wafer-thin margin, but that's not the whole story. Pointers from a blogger http://wandering-troubadour.blogspot.com/ shows quite an alarming picture of a desparate entity to hold on to power .. no matter what. An excerpt from the said article ..
" .. Armchair warriors who wrote comments on the Manik Urai by-election sitting comfortably from their study rooms based on information that they skimmed through the Internet at best hit the outer ring of the target if not missing hitting the board at all! It is interesting to note that many did simply just that -- write from afar basing their opinions on those who make a living on writing news.
I was there smack in the middle of the war, espionages and counter-strikes. And BN has never been dirtier.
The amount of money that changed hands with voters was simply unbelievably high that almost every household can have a one-month holiday to savour their fortune. Only the Almighty knows the extent of their guilt and no mortal soul can claim that what they did was immoral, as nobody knows who voted for whom, at least for most of us that is.
It is amazing what money can buy. Maybe RM50 per voter did not work anymore but RM500 hooked even the very hearts that loathe corruption. They reason in their heads that it was a gift and hence free from any sin whatsoever associated with it. It was a meagre sum to the haves but a windfall to the haves-not. For a household with three voters, they took home a month’s equivalent of a wage.
But in a climate of distrust alternative plans were laid in abundance. Coming from multiple sources, voters were spoilt for bounties. Some walked away with three sets of gifts each giving a person’s take-home present of RM1,500. All one had to do was to wait for the go-between to approach him or her. It was a case of supply outstripping demand.
Keeping people (read voters) at poverty level and on the brink of starvation almost always pays in the end. They can easily be bought. After all it is not often such a by-election comes their way. Opportunity comes-a-knocking, it is a gift from above.
RM500 per voter was at most RM5Million. Considering three sources each armed with RM10Million, a total of RM30Million were spent with RM15Million going directly to voters and the rest as usual fall off the gravy trains into the hands of local warlords ....."
Read the rest at http://wandering-troubadour.blogspot.com/2009/07/other-side-of-story.html
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