Ubah

This was taken at about 6.30 am on the Voting Day.

My aunt had gone for her morning exercise. I was looking at the exercise group when I saw the whimsical picture of a morning moon and the pastel skylight.

Didn't have my camera with me, so had to make do with an iPhone.

The villagers voted at a Malay primary school which was just across the road from where I took this picture.

And the poll result shows that they want an ubah (change).

The ubah does not come without a struggle.

Families quarrelled among themselves over which party to vote for.

Even my eldest paternal aunt came to my aunt's place to persuade the household to vote for 'the balance', and quarrelled with her husband over it.

The older generation leans more towards the ruling party as they believe that the benefits such as the pension and monetary handouts are the result of the reign of the ruling party. For half a century, they have been under them and life, though hard, have been relatively safe and peaceful. So they would prefer to have the country continued to be run by them. They don't want a change.

These were what I saw on the drive back to my hometown:

Rows and rows of flags, streamers and banners in seas of blue. Wherever you go.

For a working adult, the first thing that comes to your mind would be: holycow (pun intended), how much of taxpayers' money have gone into this?

Printed and made in China.

How do I know? One of the banners was on the road divider, and it was so close to the car that we could even read the fine prints at the bottom of the banner. The name and contacts of the printing company were clearly stated, and the number started with '+85', the code of China.

My first thought was: Oh, at least they tried to save the cost of printing.

But my nice thought about them was dashed by my sister's exclamation,"For all you know, they filled in 'RM2 per banner' when it cost just 'RM 0.02 per banner'!"

Oh the naive me!

They not only hung the banners and flags in an overly-done fashion, they also wrapped tree trunks and branches and town icons with them!

The only reason for them to do that was probably they printed too many!