Fading

It had been three days. And I had been seeing many patients, using the alcohol handrub after most of the encounters.

Clearly it did something to the ink on my finger. It had flaked off and fading away even at the nails.

I doubt that the drama would have finished when the ink was gone. Ramadhan coming, but that won’t stop me from having some popcorns in the evenings ...

Exciting Times

Another 2 days. Then it would be another public holiday, but this one would be like no other. It is going to be the public holiday for the 14th General Election #GE14.

I will be voting in Bukit Antarabangsa as usual, plannng to finish my rounds super early and be at the polling station by 10 when the first wave of people were done with their voting.

My Mum would be there as well as Julia, but Mum would get a special lane as “warga emas”. She would not be canvassing like she did in the past election. In fact, she was getting worried about the way the country was heading as well.

The mood in town and work place had definitely changed. People seemed more optimistic. There might not be a change of Government at the end of the day, but the messgae from the Rakyat seemed to be loud and clear. The statements coming out from the ruling party did not help matters as well. They seemed rooted from the 80s. Same old tactics. Same old excuses.

From the seat at the balcony ...You can find me here as the results come trickling in ...The Internet certainly helped disseminate information more readily. There was no need to pay for the bandwidth. Only one party who paid for adverts and all it did was made me wonder what their strategies were. Listening to the mainstream TV also did not help. Lopsided reporting with poor journalism making me cringe everytime I switched TV3 at 8 pm - or at any time for that matter.

We crave news and an open mass media would be something worth fighting for no matter who would be ruling. We live in an information age and the more we were curbed, the more mistrust there will be.

With Tun M promising Thursday and Friday would also be public holidays should he become the next Prime Minister, even my boys got excited. “Will I get 3 days off Daddy?”, Idlan asked. Bless him. The country definitely needs a change. For the sake of the next generation ...

I will be spending the rest of Wednesday hooked up to the net barring any disaster. The calendar for Thursday morning was also quite light - something I planned. I will be on the sofa at my balcony, enjoying the breeze out in the open. Hopefully with that, it would be a wind of change. In shaa Allah.

I Scratch Your Back

A few years back, there was a headline about a speech given by PM Najib. It was during a campaign for a by-election. In that speech, he famously pleaded, "I scratch your back. And you scratch mine."

On the day that Sarawak had the state election, I couldn't help by be reminded by that speech during my ward round this morning.

One of the patient had been having a chronic skin irritation and he just couldn't stop scratching. So, he got this device to service his hard to breach areas. Clever wasn't it. And he was happy with it.

Suffice to say that BN got a huge majority in the election. A lot of back scratching was expected from now.

The Walking Wounded

It was a long evening in the end, going through the streams of results which came thick and fast by midnight. Twitter definitely helped me sift through the confirmed results and I was able to post them straight into my own stream and to Facebook with minimal fuss. Sorry about the updates on my Facebook feed to those who were expecting something else.

In the end, it was a simple majority, which is about what everybody could sensibly hope for. Although I must say, I was expecting a much closer results. A few surprises and a few lessons to be learnt, although not sure if those in power would be taking heed or not.

Studying the streamRan out of fuel by midnightIn any case, I felt compelled to write about a candidate who I hoped, or least in my eyes, the one who carries the aspiration of my generation at least, a far who a Malay UMNO candidate should strive to. Basically, if I ever grew balls to go into politics, and aligning to my political belief and demography - no! I am not Bangla! - I would hope to progress along the line of this person. It is not Abang Bung and his hot wife. It would not be my senior from school, Dato' Razali Ibrahim - sorry bro! It would not be one of my cousin who frankly I don't rate too highly who won Kepala Batas.

It would be Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah. He was the Deputy Minister for Higher Education, and he lost to PAS's Nasruddin Hassan by just over 1000 votes. Why he gets my time of the day? Maybe the video below would explain it better. I wish you the very best Dato' and if the current government understood the young Malay voters, they could do no wrong by selecting him as a Senator. He is an asset. That was it. Enough politicking! Good day all …..

Done My Bit

A mad dash right after sorting out my early morning admission and ward patients across time, I started my queue at the voting centre at around 10.20 in the morning. It was actually late, as some of my colleagues had already passed their votes before doing their morning rounds. Being on call last night left me with little choice. And the sun was blazing!

It was a couple of hours later before I casted my vote, but it was a worthwhile wait. Some friendly banter all around. I was still registered at my mother's place at Bukit Antarabangsa, meaning that my state seat would be Bukit Antarabangsa and the Parliament being Ampang. Both were held by Pakatan the last time around.

I parked my car at my Mum's place, not risking having to find space nearer the polling station. As soon as I arrived, my Mum was already there waiting for me in a political party vehicle. A free ride. And then I started my long queue which snaked around the polling centre.

At the start of the queueLate canvassing was happening, with both parties offering drinks. Those more than 60 years-of-age were ushered to the front of the queue - which nobody minded. I had twitter, Facebook and Instagram to keep me company, and pretty soon, I was laughing away in the bright sunshine, snapping pictures in between.

I was due to be joined by my sister, but she was held up in Melaka as her husband was voting there. She only arrived as I was about to leave.

The was no drama at the polling centre. Everybody seemed in jovial mood. The lady and her partner in front of me declared that they were first-time voters and were excited about the whole process, kept checking on a piece of paper with them as to which lane they would be using later during casting. I finished a couple of bottles of drinks before it was my turn to vote.

The checking of the names on the list through a computer came first, after which I was given a slip as to which lane I should be follow and which room I should use. I got the lucky number four. Luckily, there were not that many people on my lane.

In the voting room, I handed the officer my IC and the lane slip with a serial number on it for them to find my name in the main registry. My name was read out loud, and a tick and a cross was put by my name after it was announced. At the next officer, I was asked to show my left index finger, which was later smothered with the now famous blue ink. The next officer handed me my ballot paper, which I inspected for marks. It was clean. So off I went into the booth.

There were two pieces of paper to cross, a parliament and a state seat. They were both two-prong fights between BN and Pakatan, UMNO and Keadilan. All Malay candidates. Then came the folding of the paper and inserting them into the two ballot boxes, one for parliament and the other for the state seats of course.

BeforeAfterI have done my responsibility, and now, I was hoping that those at the receiving end would be executing their duty in counting the votes honestly as well. May the best candidate win …….