Marilah Mari, Pergi Mengundi

"Marilah mari, pergi mengundi,
Jangan lupa kewajipan pada negara"

I finally registered as a voter last Thursday. It was all a matter of coincidence: I went to Carrefour and so did the mobile registration booth. It took all of one minute. I handed in my IC, signed a form and was free to go.

Why did I do it? After all, I missed the last two elections for various reasons.

Do I really care that it's a 'kewajipan pada negara'? No. And what's one vote anyway? Well, multiply that with the number of virgin voters and people who use that as an excuse and you'll find that it's quite a lot.

To me, being a registered voter simply means:

1. My option to vote is open, just in case there's an emergency and EVERYONE'S vote counts.
   
2. Anwar's coming back into politics. UMNO's becoming more Islamic, cosmetically at least. Perhaps (in a lofty dream), there will come a day when some heroic opposition party upholds a vision of Malaysia that I believe in and will vote for. They'd need all the support they can get from sensible and progressive people like me.
   
3. Even if the party I vote for loses and Malaysia becomes further entrenched as an Islamic state (God forbid), at least I know I tried and won't be cursing the day I didn't register at the mobile booth in front of Carrefour.
   

So really. Do yourself a favour and register as a voter so that you don't set yourself up for sleepless nights or complain about the country's governance without first exercising your rights to vote. The country's future is partly in our hands. Or so we'd like to think.