Happy 2013: Welcome to the Season of the WHICH

Technorati tags: Happy New Year, 2013, Donovan, Season of the Which

Happy New Year 2013!

If this new year were to have been tag-lined by Jon Stewart, he'd probably have called it Indecision 2013. Walski, on the other hand, thinks that this year is The Season of the "Which".

We pretty much spent a good chunk of 2012 speculating WHEN GE13 would be. No thanks, of course, to Our Dear PM, who simply wasn't inspired enough to decide when the next general election should be.

We now know it has to be this year. When exactly we still don't know and will have to wait until Our Dear PM is inspired enough, but constitutionally, it will be no later than June sometime.

But more important than "When" will be the question of WHICH.
(why it's the Which, and whatever more, in the full post)

Do we retain Barisan Nasional - essentially UMNO plus a mish-mash of hangers-on parties - to lead us into the next 4 or 5 years, or do we put our trust in leadership with Pakatan Rakyat?

That's the WHICH we need to ask ourselves, and ultimately, answer during the coming GE13. In 2013. Has a ring to it, if you ask Walski.

It's New Year's Day, and the last thing Walski wants to do is to ruminate on this question. Not today, at least. We'll have the coming weeks and months to decide. He hopes, however, that those who have been criticizing what Malaysian politics has become have taken the trouble to register to vote.

He's not sure if you still have time to register now or not, but seriously, shame on you if you haven't, and criticize nevertheless. It may sound cliche, but every vote does count, and your vote represents your say.

There used to be a time when Walski felt his lone voice wouldn't make a single splash in the sea of seemingly ubiquitous support for BN, and therefore didn't bother to register as a voter.

That changed just prior to GE12, and he's never regretted the decision to be part of the electorate. It was, admittedly the first election he cast his vote in, but he saw for himself that when millions of lone voices speak, they collectively make a big difference.

Let's be objective for a moment - both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat have their strengths and weaknesses. Neither coalition is perfect, but the challenge is for us to decide which is the evil of the two lessers, and deny them Putrajaya, the seat of the Malaysian Federal Government.

Personally, Walski wants the change promised by Pakatan, versus the lip-service type of change - loose change, as he calls it - that Barisan has been spouting since 2008, with increased intensity in 2012.

But that intensity in rhetoric has not been accompanied by real and meaningful change. The fact that Barisan Nasional has NO intention to change became very apparent when Our Dear PM came out to say that he can only institute change if he's given the people's mandate in GE13.

Are we to believe that he couldn't do jack for the last 4+ years, and can only bring about change in the BN (and by default, the Government) with a fresh mandate? 

Allow Walski to rephrase that: Are we GULLIBLE enough to believe this?

For him, the answer is a resounding NO.

We all know the real resistance to change, even if (presumably) Our Dear PM is sincere in wanting to institute change. And that impenetrable wall is called UMNO.

But that's Walski's personal opinion, and you're more than welcome to disagree. It's a free country after all. Well, somewhat free. At the moment.

And so Walski intends to spend the rest of today NOT thinking about WHICH, because 2012 gave him an abundance of time to decide. Thinking about it more today, New Year's Day, is not going to change his decision.

The ball is in your court, good people… Happy 2013, and welcome to the Season of the "Which". 

Walski's WHICH-witch-inspired-this-post footnote: Yesterday, while Walski was around about town, this 60s psychedelic classic came on BFM89.9, the only radio station Walski listens to. Without any help from psychedelics - apart from the tune - it became apparent that 2013 would be the season…

Many thanks, Walski supposes, to Donovan for the inspiration. Oh, and belated congratulations for the 60s icon's induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.