bobjots : redux

Why the stubborn refusal to just be part of the larger polity and embrace the promises of Barisan Nasional, especially after the swearing in of a new Prime Minister who had promised extensive reforms?

Personally, I have participated in elections campaigns since the 1995 General Elections and had been a conscious observer since the 1990 General Elections. So while I did see some electoral promises being fulfilled in the form of short term rewards, I saw no evidence of the Barisan Nasional having the necessary political will or moral courage to make any institutional reforms that would create the environment necessary for greater accountability and participation by the people in their own affairs. Even with the new Prime Minister (then), most of the Cabinet remained the same old people spouting the same old ideas.

Despite the brickbats being thrown both by erstwhile friends as well as our traditional foes from across the fence, a lot of us still believed that the party's platform held real promise for the revival and renewal of Malaysia's democratic traditions as well as the progressive evolution of our society.

Nazmi then suggested that perhaps we could help contribute in rebuilding the party's communications infrastructure by doing what we did best, utilising cyberspace. So a project of sorts was cobbled up where a permanent domain name was purchased (ie. keadilanrakyat.org) using Nurul Izzah's name and a rudimentary website developed. I remember how we used to call the various officers of the party up "pleading" for statements to be made available so that we could actually have some content up on the website. Sometimes, we were forced to cook up a few commentaries of our own .. which fortunately only got us into trouble a handful of times.

So what we had finally was a little team, consisting of a handful of folks who lived primarily on cyberspace (physically we had Nazmi in the UK, Shin in Singapore and a few of us here in the Klang Valley - I think I was the oldest among them all being the only guy then above 30), tolerated perhaps because no one else was doing the job and also because Nazmi had a good working and personal relationship with Izzah.

Over the years since, the communications infrastructure have improved quite a bit with the subsequent appointment of Tian Chua as the Information Chief (we really do need a much better translation of the term Ketua Penerangan .. the word chief reminds me so much of spaghetti westerns), the consolidation of the workload with the set up of a proper Information Office, the incorporation of SMS updates, resumption of the regular publication of Suara KeADILan, et al.

When Nazmi returned to Malaysia upon completing his studies, he started work with a government linked corporation, Permodalan Nasional Berhad, as part of his contractual obligations attached with his scholarship. It was, perhaps, during this time that he saw how bad things really were at home, the underlying ethnic tensions, runaway corruption, et al. He then made a very difficult decision to terminate his contract, subjecting himself to repaying quite a large sum of money back to PNB, and join Anwar Ibrahim's staff as his private secretary.

One can tell the measure of a man by the fruits shown and Nazmi has always shown himself to be sacrificial and committed in his task for what he perceives to be the common good. I believe he will make a great wakil rakyat for the people of Seri Setia and will conscientiously carry out the task required, representing everyone without fear or favour.

Here's a short video clip that was made for his campaign where he outlines his vision for what he hopes to do as a wakil rakyat :

Needless to say, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad gets my endorsement. If you reside within the Seri Setia constituency, I'd like to urge you to take some time and meet this chap. Talk to him a bit, or better still, get involved in his campaign. Details can be found at his campaign website at www.niknazmi.com or you can call Faisal, his campaign manager, at 019.223.2002.