Cheerios!

Sweet Easter Bunny my head hurts like I'm a Trostkyist whose head has been split asunder by an ice-pick.
Damn clandestine operations. And course assignments.

With Malaysian politics dwindling in interest to the equivalent significance of tea leaves in an empty cup and with the current whiff of feminism prevalently embodied in the persona of a someone, I've decided to rant on cheerleading.

Cheerleading? Yes. It all came about I can't pin down when, but I remember wanting to write about it after coming home from my younger brother's sports day. It is, I find, rather disturbing seeing those young girls wheel about in attitude to the raucous yells of euphoric parents.
Visual aesthetics? Creepy.

To get one thing straight, cheerleading originates from The USA. Not saying all evil stems from there, oh no. Geert Wilders lives in Holland. To return, although cheerleading started as a means to cheer on a team and as an all-male activity (laughable, I know) it has evolved to become the most sexist, gender-stereotyping and female derisive thing I've ever had the displeasure of witnessing. At least I think so.

Scene from an atypical American football movie: Pep talk in the locker room. Outside the crowd get impatient. The cheerleading squad, all looking joyous and happy in those mini-skirt one piece thingys and Barbie doll make-up start flipping around, exciting the crowd. Football team runs on-field like a pack of angry, ravaged bulldogs.

My point is, cheerleading has evolved to become a woman-cheers-man phenomenon. Not just that, but women-in-skimpy-outfits-cheer-the atypical-jock.

Welcome to gender stereotyping. Why can't it be dudes cheering on a netball team?

So you say "But there are dudes on a cheerleading team." Do you see them shirtless? All they ever do is carry the girls, another stereotype. Surely girls are strong enough to lift one another?
And how many times have we thought male cheerleaders were kinda gay (or at least initially)?

So after all the feminism, the question of why we import an attitude (not a culture), and a sexist one at that, into our culture is beyond me. If I was in a womens action group I'd be sounding my whistle every time a girl did a backflip.

But doesn't everyone want to be a cheerleader?

Was it all A dream?

Opposition retain Kelantan.

And Nab Penang.

And Kedah.

And Perak.

AND SELANGOR.

Yes, SELANGOR.

What on earth happened last night? Where did all these extra ballot boxes come from? Where did we hid the BN votes? Or did we actually vote in the opposition?

Did yesterday really happen?

For the first time in our nation's history, Malaysians came out to vote for a better Malaysia. After 50 years, this country has gotten the change it needed. Its not the winds of change anymore, its a friggin' tsunami.

The scores and tallies are available elsewhere. The analysis is within the recesses of our brains. What I want to vent is that while some of us celebrate the change that is to come, others rue the loss of the ruling party. While some of us readily assume that all have awaited opposition power, there are those who vehemently oppose anything pembangkang.

Government machinery has been hard at work, using the media to spread its lies and misrepresent other political parties. While some don't fall for the facade unfortunately others do, even those amongst one's tightest circle thus creating a dichotomy among peers, friends you have known since before we could even spell "politics".

Ignorance is the enemy of friends. Here we stand side by side, with one dreaming of the future of ahead and the other saddened by the future lost. Why?

Because we're guilty. Guilty in all our campaigning. For all the strangers I approached, for all the people I personally called, for all the ceramahs I attended, I failed as my duty as a friend to inform my own peers about the state of affairs in this country. While we celebrate the victory of a win, I can only smack myself in the head for all those I missed. With all the euphoria that pervades the atmosphere, I can only think of those unaccounted in the celebrations. Some of them my own friends.
All because I never reached out to those closest, because of ignorance, theirs and mine.

Life is like politics when you try to please everyone. Politicians, like us, are not chameleons, changing to suit the context, we're merely accommodating more friends. What people don't understand is that like life, in pleasing everyone you are not changing your stance. Your finding new ways to stand.

So Us Is This

And so we have arrived.

Here we stand at the pinnacle of efforts, the penultimate challenge that awaits all us patriots.

Election Day is today.

As I write this, I've just returned from what counts as my fourth ceramah this campaign period, them being the ceramahs in Brickfields (Makkal Sahti!), Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kampung Pasir Baru and tonight's down in my hood, Lucky Garden Bangsar.

I've heard candidates and representatives of all the opposition parties, PAS, keADILan and the DAP, and the message is loud and clear; f**k off, Barisan Nasional! There were times when the speakers were exploding with fury and vehemence that an expletive seemed poised and rearing. Shit, if that was me I'd have to be on a soap diet til the elections are over.

People are overcoming they're differences. Only the myopic still believe the lies fed to us by the mass media about the opposition parties; PAS is ultra-fundamental, DAP is ultra-Chinese, and keADILan is ultra-irrelevant. If anyone has been to an opposition ceramah, I challenge them to continue to be duped by the BN IV drop. This country has gone 50 years into its independence, from one decadent year to the next while all we did was sip teh tarik and blame postal votes.

Not this time, not again for I fear if it doesn't happen this year, the people will never be roused to awakening again. Today, we have the one and only opportunity to effect the change that we want, not that of our kleptocratic leaders, into the Malaysia we've envisioned and dreamed. All this work the blogs have done, all the scrutiny of the watchdogs, all the drama of the rallies will amount to nothing if the support is not translated into votes. Our yells at the Bersih rally, our screams of "Reformasi" will merely ring empty if we do not act upon our sentiments. As Nurul Izzah put it, "I want a better Malaysia for my daughter."

I can't vote. All I can do is show my support, volunteer where necessary, say a prayer or two, or write something I hope others might read. But I urge, and very strongly, to all those who CAN vote to exercise your democratic rights, but to also go a step further and vote opposition. It doesn't matter who's running in your constituency, be it DAP or PAS, if they can form a coalition, can't we? Please don't leave your lives in the hands of a PM who can't stay awake, an education minister who brandishes the keris, a judiciary-for-sale and a non-protection police force. As dramatic as it sounds, your future in this country is dependent on your vote.

So vote Opposition, God damnit!