I dreamt of Anwar yesterday.

I did. I can't remember what it was about, but I do remember Amir being in it. Contrary to what you may imagine, it had no guy-on-guy action. (Gaaah the horror!) Now if I can only recall what it was about... *stares off into the distance*

Speaking of which. The vote-buying activities of BN is really getting to me. VERY tulan. I meant to blog about it earlier when I read Tony's posts on his reflections on the Machap, Post 1 (about on-the-ground work) and Post 2 (BN bringing "development" to Machap. Vote-buying. VOTE-BUYING. WTH.), but it was stuck in a backlog of various other posts I had in my mind (hence the overload and I came up with 3 dustbins instead).

Here are some of the goodies Machap got, from Tony P's Post 2:

1. Some 900 street lamps were put up. A hawker in Melaka town joked that its now so bright, he can see the ants on the road in the evenings! Roads were resurfaced, even when they are not particularly worn. A RM1.2 million recreational park was created all within a two-week period!
2. BN was blatant in its attempt to sway voters preferences. BN's candidate, Lai Meng Chong was "caught" red-handed by the press in the early days of campaigning for offering RM8,000 to RM13,000 to renovate individual villager's houses.
3. Later in the campaign, he was also "caught" on film giving out free food to constituents to entice support for BN. Again, this represents an offence under Malaysian laws. "A person is guilty under this offence known as 'treating' if he gives or provides any food, drink, refreshment or provision for the purpose of corruptly influencing others to give their vote during elections."
4. Two days before the campaign ended, BN "donated" 400 brand new bicycles to a local school. Students were seen brandishing brand new mountain bicycles home that very day.
5. At the karaoke entertainment centres organised by BN, not only do the participants get "free" entertainment, they will each receive RM20 as a "token of appreciation" for every song they belt out.
6. And the ugliest of it all? Outright cash in exchange for votes. See Malaysiakini report here with all the photos. Our party worker, Thing Siew Shuen captured the utter lack of morals and integrity of MCA and Barisan Nasional on film. These voters collected RM100-200 each.

I'm not begrudging the Machap folks. I think it's wonderful for them that they're getting attention and probably development that they deserve. The utter unfairness of the case, of using Tax Payers' Money and winning through these backdoor tactics, is what I'm riled up by. Kena by-election is like kena lottery. Corrupting people's souls with money. TAX PAYERS' MONEY!!

OK. Moving on.

Look what's on The Sun today: "Development pledges not 'vote-buying'" The whole piece is so wrong that I'm just going to put it in whole here:

KUALA LUMPUR (April 16, 2007): Development promises by ministers to voters during an election cannot be construed as vote-buying. (WTF #1)

Neither can allocations, given out in kind by ministers during elections, be deemed as bribing voters, Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said today.

"Ministers and functionaries, people connected to the government, they're doing their job," he told reporters at the launch of a national voter registration campaign.

Abdul Rashid stressed, however, that election candidates and political parties cannot make promises to voters during an election. (WTF #2 which contradicts WTF#1)

In the recently-concluded Machap by-election in Malacca, voters benefitted from newly-paved roads, hundreds of new street lamps, and a RM1.2 million recreational area near the Durian Tunggal dam.

Other development goodies were also announced by the Barisan Nasional leadership, including 102 grants for housing lots for second-generation settler families at Felda Tun Ghafar Machap, and a RM3.7 million allocation to Felda Machap to upgrade water pipes, construct a multi-purpose hall and repair a mosque.

Various ministries also promised different kinds of allocations to improve the lives of voters, prompting DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng to remark that the Machap voters were the "real victors" in the by-election.

Lim told theSun the party would be making a formal complaint to the EC today as such promises were an offence under the Election Offences Act 1954 as stipulated under Sections 8 to 10, which cover the issues of treating, exerting undue influence and bribery.

Abdul Rashid said vote-buying was not the EC's problem. (WTF#3?!?!?)

"Vote-buying is for the Anti-Corruption Agency (to investigate). We are not given the power to handle corrupt practices," he said, adding that the EC could only advise people to take part in the elections in "a clean way".

"Of course, if evidence is there, the party can bring the case to court and they (the courts) will decide," he said.

However, he noted that in previous court cases which contested these issues, the judges had ruled that there was no need to stop ministers from publicising their projects. (WTF#4 Neener neener neener there's nothing you can do)

Earlier, Abdul Rashid said the national voter registration exercise hoped to register at least 50% of the current 4.9 million unregistered voters.

So far, only 10.2 million Malaysians aged 21 years and above, out 15.1 million, have registered to vote. (WTF#5 Pulling hair out stomping on daisies belting expletives)

//UPDATE
I have just noticed that WTF#1 differs slightly from WTF#2.
WTF#1: Development promises by ministers to voters during an election cannot be construed as vote-buying.
WTF#2: Election candidates and political parties cannot make promises to voters during an election.

Can anyone enlighten me with the technicalities of WTF#1 vs. WTF#2, apart from there are no opposition leaders who are ministers?
//End of UPDATE

And so it continues with Ijok. Elizabeth Wong has already got some early tidbits. Here and here.

Let's end this post with Bribe-Me Badges, crafted by Mob1900: