#undirosak matters
They do this because they care. If they really did not care, they’d won’t travel to a polling station. They’d be home, shopping online at Lazada.
Praba Ganesan, The Malay Mail Online
The #undirosak movement is captivating. But not so much as the response from Pakatan Harapan leaders over it, or rather the lack of coherent responses.
[#undirosak is self-explanatory in Malay, to spoil votes and encourage others to do so as an act of political protest]
Nevertheless, barbs are flying back and forth in cyberspace through conduits representing the cause or coalition in the guise of online comments, such as and not limited to the following: counter-intuitive, wasteful, cybertroopers, sabotage, political illiteracy and destructive discourse.
What strikes me is the lack of an intellectual shape in the answers to critics. As if it is adequate to label those holding on to #undirosak as the uninformed.
There are various trade-offs in politics, many of them distasteful to mere observers, but it is without a doubt a stupid strategy to assume you own votes, of anybody. Votes originate from voters, and politicians never tell off voters. It’s like right up on page one of the manual on “how to not lose votes by pissing off voters, therefore losing elections.”
There is only one way to reply, and it does not require a political science degree to form it, or one term in Dewan Rakyat. It begins with acceptance.
“I disagree with the course of action to spoil votes. Yet, it would be irresponsible to assume their views are without merit, therefore I and my party/coalition respect their decision.
“Being alerted by this vital development, between now and election day we will endeavour to convince them otherwise and win their support.”
Or something like that.
It’s not a time to re-explain the position vis-à-vis why leader A is going to be in charge while being pegged back properly by B so members of party C don’t have to fret while they wait for leader D to reassume his true place in the hearts and minds of all Malaysians. And the sulking leader E will eventually toe the line as he always has in view of his love for party C, with the outside chance of abandoning ship for party F.
They know it. They really do. The rebels I mean, those backing #undirosak.
Scolding them only increases their resolve, but going thermonuclear and insulting them as ignoramuses will risk losing their support indefinitely.
