Giving up the good fight

Technorati tags: Malaysia, Politics, PAS, PKR, Election, Boycott

It's exactly in cases such as these that the words "freedom of no choice" come to mind. Granted there are suspected discrepencies in the electoral roll, but boycotting elections doesn't bring us any closer to a real democracy, does it?

BN likely to retain Batu Talam, by default

The news has also been reported by Malaysiakini (in Bahasa Malaysia, subscription required) and Bernama.

As nomination day has been designated to be January 16, it looks like BN will retain the seat, by default, as there are probably no other credible contenders. We'll just have to wait a bit and see the outcome of this development.
(more thoughts in the full post)

The boycott by PAS follows a similar boycott by PKR announced a few days ago, and is partly in response to the admission by the Election Commission that the Malaysian election laws are outdated. The other part has to do with what's been seen as irregularities in the electoral roll, and that the vote-by-post is not transparent.

Don't know about you, but no system is perfect, Walski thinks. And what objective would boycotting the election achieve? Ask PAS & PKR. But Walski supposes that it's a calculated risk - boycotting the election on grounds that the system is flawed, weighed against causing some damage to their credibility in the process.

Left to be seen, one supposes. But one thing's for sure - BN's spin meisters are definitely gonna have a field day with this...