Generalization, why it is bad?

6th of May and suddenly everyone is an advocate for something all over the social media. Yes, people are entitled to their opinion. It's your right anyway. And it is a good thing that people DO care about Malaysia. It's a good start!

As you can see, everywhere is spewed with hatred (mostly) towards the death of democracy. I found a good read here. In which in turn moved me to write about my experience being one of the Polling Clerk for the GE13.

I am polling clerk no. 1. My task is to read aloud the serial number, ic number and full name of the voter

My day started early on 5th of May. We all have to be at the polling centre by 6am. As for our Ketua Tempat Mengundi for our saluran. He has to be at the police station the latest by 5am to take the ballot papers and ballot boxes. Our day started very early indeed.

We have prepared some of the things needed a day before but the rest of the things are being set up before 7am (at least)

And this is my view by 7am

So the people started coming in to line up outside by 10-15 mins before 8am.

FYI: the people who are inside the room are
1) Ketua Tempat Mengundi
2) Kerani No.1 ( that's me )
3) Kerani No.2 ( the one who is in charge of painting the indelible ink )
4) Kerani No.3 ( the one in charge giving out the ballot paper to voters )
5) Kerani No.4 ( tukang kasi tunjuk mana mau pigi and kasi cucuk itu karatas undi kalau susah mau masuk kutak )
6) Representatives of each candidate for observation ( they are the polling agent - in which they will take turns with their team every 2 hours )
7) one police officer assigned at the door to control the crowd

another FYI (s) :
The polling agents is responsible for being the "eye" on the whole process
They can actually query at anytime if there's hanky panky
They monitor the numbers of voters coming in ( hence the need for kerani no.1 to read out everything is for them to dengar and cross out the list )

The existence of polling agents are not known by many. Most of the time they thought everyone in the room is SPR people.

People came in like non-stop from 8am till 12noon. With macam-macam gaya. ( Ada yang mabuk lagi pigi mengundi juga. Miring2 lagi jalan. Odoi! )

This was my lunch in which was actually tea break food in the morning. Lunch ada tapi nda sempat makan cos people keep coming in

I need to vote too. Since my voting centre is the same just different saluran only. So need to curi masa by asking my other kerani to cover for me. Yes, it's our responsibility. We must vote!

The story of the indelible ink is another one. Aiya, malas la mau elaborate. Sakit jiwa. And of course KAMI yang bertugas la yang kana marah-marah for nothing. Bukan salah kami pun.

This is my view around a few minutes before the polling time is over.

Bangas dan kepanasan dan mengantuk. Sakit belakang la duduk for almost 10 hours. 

By 5.00 pm, the police officer tutup the door and just left us the petugas and the polling agents. The Ketua Tempat Mengundi then seal the ballot boxes and allow 30 mins for tempoh bertenang. ( Yeah, all was done by the book )

We then set up the trays for counting of the votes. Actually the tedious part comes here.

Counting of votes

The Ketua then will open the seal in front all the polling agents and we will transfer the ballot papers to the tray of UNDI BELUM DIKIRA. Stack the ballot papers in 10s and 100s and count the numbers. It must tally with the numbers recorded earlier ( the number of ballot papers issued out )

It was such a relief that it tally. So now kira!

We then unfold every single ballot paper and show it to the polling agents and say out the vote.( Satu hari bah go announcing things right from reading out names now reading out votes ) Any arguable votes will be placed as UNDI RAGU. Habis sorting out ikut votes to which party we head on to decide the UNDI RAGU.

Another crucial part, this is where the polling agents and the Ketua Tempat Mengundi will go over the ballot papers ONE by ONE. The guideline is based by the book as well. Some are accepted and some are rejected.

After that, the counting of votes in each tray of the contesting candidates. Stack in 10s then 100s ( if ada yang sampai begitu banyak vote dia la ). Then everything is recorded in one form. The Borang 14 I think. The Ketua Tempat Mengundi then will ask the polling agents to sign the form to confirm the result.

Pack the results in an envelope and the ballot papers also in envelope. Macam itu exam paper bah. Lebih kurang la tu.

Phew! We started the process of counting around 5.30pm and ended around 8.30pm. Mo patah pinggang oh. Well. That's only for the NEGERI punya ballot box with 602 ballot papers in our saluran. Gotta repeat the SAME thing ALL OVER again for the PARLIMEN punya ballot box. Huhu.

So, fikirlah camana penat dia. Our day started around 6am at it was already 8.30pm. (Lapar lagi, penat lagi). The whole thing ended like almost 10pm. Then packing lagi. Our Ketua then have to hantar the result + ballot papers + ballot box accompanied by policeman to the Pusat Penjumlahan Undi in Tuaran. Nasib baik tiada recount ( I can't imagine places yang ada recount votes, sabar saja lah )

I choose to be one of the polling clerk this time around because I am curious of the whole process. I guess if I am not exposed to the other side of the story, I will definitely be another "lecturer" on the social medias. Some complain kenapa lambat, all I can say for my saluran there were 602 ballot papers and there are two ballot boxes to be counted. Some say dulu 2008 kenapa result cepat, all I can say for my saluran there were an increase for voters who turned up to vote. 2008 was only 70 something % and this 2003 is 80 something % ( Note, I am only giving the example of my saluran because that is what I know, other place might not be the same )

And if I were to do that like saying " Petugas SPR buduh " , "kera-BN" , "SPR Penipu", I will be very selfish I guess. My parents have bertugas as Petugas SPR as well for many years. This GE, my dad is the Penyelia for my polling centre and my mom is the assistant of the chief SPR for Tuaran.

You see, what generalization can do. It will only hurt people. Those unkind words hurled at SPR to generalize everything. You don't know what they have to endure in order to get the voting process done. My friend in Sarawak have to travel by boat 2 hours to reach the rumah panjang that she bertugas. Getting there alone is very susah let alone to bringing another "extra" box. Siapa yang mau menyusahkan diri. But, other place yang ada kejadian, saya nda tau.

I understand that things happen. The magic trick. The blackout. The "extra" boxes. It happen in other places. People say. But do they really know what happen? I do not know. Maybe some polling centres don't follow the SOP. We do not know. As much as we can digest the information you don't have to spread it if it maybe rumors  Try to do at least some research on the process first  (at least). And most of all, be kind with your words. Cakap la apa ko mau, itu masing-masing punya hak tapi cakap bagus-bagus la.

Just be kind! No matter in what situation. Don't generalize. If you are saying SPR kapsit, it's generalizing the whole SPR. It's like saying all men are useless; but your dad is a man also kan. Or saying all women are evil; but your mom is also a woman. Be specific la kalau mau accuse pun.

I had a long day on Sunday and I practically waited for the result in front of the tv ( and also my mom, who was at the pusat penjumlahan undi ). I think I only went to sleep at 2am and my mom only came back home at 3am. We all definitely had a LONG day.

Monday ( today ) is a working day. Check out how many students turned up in my class. At least, this is the good class and the number who turned up to school is around half the total. But, where are the rest of the kids, penat jadi SPR juga ka?

Odoi. Sekolah berhantu today. Sangat sunyi ok.