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Today’s the day folks……Americans (expected to turn up in record numbers) will decide whether it’s the Democratic 47-year old Illinois senator Barack Obama or Republican 72-year old Arizona senator John McCain who will take over the reins of one the world’s most powerful nation.
For all the horrible things that the US is guilty of, I can’t help but envy the Americans for the freedom to decide who they want as the head of their government, rather than,say , allow the fate of the nation to be decided by some greedy and corrupted 2000 delegates from one political party. I mean, hey, if the presidential candidate wants to bribe his way in, at least majority of the nation will benefit from the money that exchanged hands right? Actually, that sounds pretty familiar with what happens during our elections, doesn’t it, but on a much smaller scale of course……instead of RM2 million, each voters would perhaps expect RM50 and some food hamper or something….sigh… Anyway, as I was catching up on the election snippets on both the US presidential race and our UMNO’s party election, I just can’t help but be hit by the stark differences in the way these people campaign….and I think most of us realise them too…. 1) Bruce Springsteen in his endorsement for Obama, said ” Our social contract has been shredded. We’re going to need all the angels we can get.” and he praised Senator Obama’s efforts to “….build a house big enough for all our dreams“. …notice the social contract was meant to be all encompassing, not just for one particular group of citizens? In contrast, we have ambitious UMNO politicians who wouldn’t think twice about prancing with crooked daggers screaming “If you question our Malay rights in the social contract, we will go amok (and poke you with our sharp pokey thing)“. 2) The main topics covered by the two US presidential candidates were focused on the economy, healthcare, taxes, foreign policies, etc. Voters are informed of what they are voting for. Back home, whoever wins the UMNO presidential spot usually assumes the juicy post of being the nation’s Prime Minister too…..so one would have expected the candidate (well, due to certain reasons, there’s only one lah…and he’s won unapposed of course) to spice up his election campaign with his plans for the nation…….don’t know about you guys but I’ve not heard anything worth hearing from this fella, have you? READ MORE HERE: http://thedandelions.wordpress.com/
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