Tunku: Your vote counts

JOHAN Jaaffar’s Bowerbird piece in The Star (March 5) touches on the subject of political franchise, a term which simply means the right to vote in public political election. As regards the forthcoming general election, I am in complete accord with Bowerbird’s call for decency in politics. And if a citizen, who is by law entitled to vote, takes a ca­­valier attitude and considers lining up in the blazing sun or a heavy downpour (or both) a waste of time to cast his vote, Plato, the Greek philosopher/martyr tersely left us a stark reminder: “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

In similar vein, former US President Barrack Obama said during the Global Food Innovation Summit in Milan recently: “People have a tendency to blame politicians when things don’t work ... But as I always tell people, you get the politicians you deserve. And if you don’t vote and if you don’t participate and if you don’t pay attention, then you’ll get policies that don’t reflect your interests.”