By Niza Shimi
There’s something about Malaysians that always warms my heart, we pull together when the going gets tough. Forget the politics. That’s always a crazy mess anywhere in the world. Malaysia is no exception. We’re just uniquely more 'rojak' anyway.
But the recent 15th general elections (GE15) really touched me. The way Malaysians came together to bring back postal votes from every corner of the world is amazing. The Malaysian spirit is in full on volunteer mode.
It doesn’t matter who you voted for. That’s your freedom to choose. No one has the right to force you otherwise. If the politicians didn’t make a convincing argument enough for you to choose them or their party, they need to try harder next time. That’s all it is.
I had not thought about overseas voters until news began to trickle in about efforts of volunteers who went out of their way to ensure postal votes from fellow Malaysians reached their destination before polls closed on November 19, 2022.
Perhaps it happened in 2018 too but I wasn’t paying attention. This year I was geared up and all fired up about GE15. I went to the polls as early at 7am and was surprised to see the long waiting lines. It was a festive atmosphere. Nobody felt tense. That’s Malaysia for you.
Little did I know about how those Malaysians abroad were voting. I assumed they did it at the Malaysian embassies or missions where they lived. But this GE15, for the first time Malaysians who were registered voters could apply online to be a postal voter.
Previously, postal votes were only open to government employees abroad, if I’m not mistaken. Now, if an overseas Malaysian you can apply under Category 1B (Overseas) postal vote as designated by the Malaysian Election Commission.
Unknown to me, that while I was happily lining up to vote at my neighborhood voting centre, which was walking distance from my home, volunteers were racing to deliver postal votes from Malaysians abroad.
New York-based Buzzfeed News writer Clarissa-Jan Lim shared many heart-warming examples of how Malaysians living in the United States were racing against the clock to get postal votes home.
She wrote, “It was part of an intricate global operation to make sure Malaysian citizens living abroad would get to vote in the general election on Saturday, the first since a power grab in 2020 resulted in a change in government and triggered one of the country’s biggest political crises.”
Whatever the reasons, Malaysians delivered. Lim wrote,” Nearly 50,000 overseas ballots were issued starting on Nov. 7, but many only reached voters this week, too late and too costly to be mailed back to their constituencies before polls in Malaysia closed at 5 p.m.
“Racing against flight schedules, time zones, and geographical hurdles, Malaysians around the world ran a huge coordinated effort to get their ballots on commercial planes back home in time to be counted,” she added. It was a massive transnational operation deserving of praise.
Lim wrote, the Malaysian diaspora hustled to get overseas ballots in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Dubai, Qatar, China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, India, Switzerland, and the UK onto flights home.
Malaysian commercial airline pilots even stepped up to volunteer to bring the ballots as ordinary courier services would not have delivered on tie especially with public holidays declared the day before GE15.
Credit has to be given to Malaysian associations abroad who mobilised their resources to reach fellow citizens in some of the most out of the way places. Malaysians are an itinerant bunch and have landed wherever the wind blows them.
In New Zealand, it was the New Zealand-Malaysia Business Association. In Singapore, it was the 1thirdmedia movement. In Japan, it was the Ikram Muda Antarabangsa (Iman) Japan and the Malaysian Students Association Japan.
These are just some examples of the Malaysian spirit. There’s no country that is perfect. But when your countrymen living abroad are this concerned about their beloved homeland, Malaysians should take pride. Malaysians are the best.
Niza Shimi is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
