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The Malaysian General Elections. When the people vote for the people they wish to represent them in the House.

It has been campaigned and promoted: that people should vote for the party and not for the candidate. That, to me, is telling us that we are too stupid to make our own decisions.

Voting for the party means we want the party to make decisions for us. Think for us. Act for us.

We are not smart enough to make our own decisions. That our wants might not be good for the country.

If you watch the party conventions etc, you know what they keep yelling: do what you can for the party, party takes precedence, sacrifice for the party, etc.

Well if you are not someone who greatly benefits from the party, and you keep doing whatever it is that you can do for the party, who will reap the benefits from your toils, your sweat and your hard work?

The people who have importance, interests in the party. The people who benefit greatly from the party's growth in assets, influence and power. And that's not everyone in the party, let alone the country.

What is more important than the party is the people. What is important to the people, not the party. What people want, not what the party wants. The whole country is not one party. The country is the people.

If whenever a person who has importance in the party can suddenly become a prime example of rags to riches in less than quarter of a decade, who's to say that being a person high up in the party does not grant you material boons beyond what a public servant receives? That it does not work like a pyramid scheme, where people at the bottom of the pyramid work hard and gain less while the people on top reap more and toil less?

If you vote for the party, you are voting for a group of people to think for you, decide for you what you want, and act for you in your stead, be it what you really want or don't. And they will get what they want, and the same can't be said about you, sir, the one who voted for the party.

Vote for the person. The candidate. Not the party.

At this point in Malaysian politics, it's better to have a mixed-party government than a single (coalition) party government. It all comes down to one thing: check and balance.

Note: all of the above are my personal opinions and does not wholly reflect Malaysian politics nor the voices and opinions of its people.