Remember, your vote will determine your future – so vote wisely

TODAY is the day you are entitled to exercise your enfranchised right of suffrage that comes once every five years.

In the country’s 14th General Election, 687 candidates have put themselves up for the 222 parliament seats at stake while 1,646 are vying for the 505 state seats up for grabs, all proclaiming to make the country better, if not the best, for all Malaysians.

Many of these candidates are locked in multi-cornered fights and in these intensely contested seats – as in all the straight-fight seats for that matter – voters will have to be discerning, perspicacious, and cast their votes wisely and with equanimity.

The 10 days of campaigning in this ‘Father of all Elections’ have been one of the fiercest in the history of the nation with the Barisan Nasional (BN) unwaveringly determined to win the day and retain power and the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) undeterred in its bid to turn the tables.

No doubt, emotions have run high in some ceramahs. But thank God, peaceloving Malaysians have been able to keep a cool head amidst all the visceral rhetoric during the hustlings with no reports of any untoward incident at press time.

While the electorates showed extraordinary passion and commitment and responsible conduct at ceramahs which should augur well for a more engaged citizenry, netizens, on the other hand, could have done better by exercising greater self-restraint rather than allowing themselves to get carried away by raw emotions, resulting in mindless resort to unbridled bashing, bullying, and fakery over differences of opinions and choice of parties and candidates.

Today, citizens of the country make their choice by casting their votes for those whom they believe can make Malaysia a better place and in particular, our home Sabah, the best region in the country.

Voting is the highest form of freedom, regardless of whom you vote for, and abstaining from the right to exercise such a privilege is akin to forfeiting your highest right as a Malaysian.

Furthermore, elections are also opportunities for renewal if necessary, and cognisant of this fact, the people, in their wisdom, will exercise the right to choose their leaders.

The promises and messages dished out in election manifesto, at ceramahs, and in social media are, at best, only a guide for the voters to choose and judge the candidates in a most transparent light.

We all have our different and specific demands and we rightly champion those who champion our needs to bring such demands to fruition and fulfilment.

Going to the polls is the best way to ensure our voice is heard and acknowledged in keeping governance in kilter and the country moving in the right direction.

However, the election per se is by no means the be-all and end-all. On the contrary, the hard work begins postelection when the victorious party and the newly-elected candidates shall start a new five-year term to fulfil their electoral promises and realise the aspirations pledged to the people who have given them the mandate to govern.

The Borneo Post would like to leave this reminder from Lou Henry Hoover, American First Lady (1929 to 1933) and wife of the 31st US president, Herbert Hoover, with all voters, “That we have the vote means nothing. That we use it in the right way means everything.”

Vote wisely.