The Malaysian election - the flags game

 



Visitors landing in Malaysia will  know straight away that there is an election coming on. Of course the various party flags are a giveaway.

Funnily, though, in my state of Perak, the red rocket symboled, white flags of the opposition party, DAP, are conspicuously missing. Everywhere you turn your head, there were the ruling coalition’s (Barisan Nasional) bright blue flags, with the symbol of weigh-balance, in the center. It is followed by the green, white-circled flags of the opposition party, PAS. To a lesser extent, there are the Party Keadilan’s sky blue flags, with white split circles in the center, being seen accompanying the other parties’ flags.

DAP seems to have some sort of strategy, in not putting out the flags early, in tandem with the other parties. Maybe, it is going to shock and awe (thank you Mr. Bush, sir!) the awaiting Malaysian voters!

In this election, if the winner was determined today by the design, distribution and display of flags, then the ruling Barisan Nasional party will win hands down. The opposition parties will lose and the DAP party will be caught with its pants down and will also lose its deposit. Ha ha! Just a wanton contemplation!

The Age Old Utterances

“Is that a tear in your shirt?”

“Where?”

“Under the arm”.

“Where? I can’t see any”.

“April fool!”

That was my wife playing the April Fool joke on me. Well, she likes to berate me all right.

Funny, my kids don’t like to play the April Fool joke on me and neither do I like to play it on them. No, I don’t think it is because of shyness on our part. It is just that they don’t like to see their father being deceived or lose his integrity and the same goes for me in relation to my kids. But they would love to play the April Fool joke on their mother, anytime! And laugh their heads off!

Funny isn’t it?

Back to my spouse playing that trick on me. I am a man with some ego. I should have torn the shirt at the arm and showed her indeed she was right all along and so I was no April fool. But then I would have become another sort of fool - a real fool. So I didn't. He! He! Better be the April fool.

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The present lousy times will one day become ‘those good old days’. Just as those miserable times when money was hard to come by, the same boring foods on the table, daily walking 2 kilometers to school, getting whacked by teachers for forgetting to bring certain stuff, riding your vehicles on the dusty and rough roads are now extolled as ‘those good old days’.

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