Extraordinary People Impacting Community

A lot has happened since the day we decided to share this adventure of registering 2 million voters. Never have we imagined that things would actually turn out this way. It would seem that by the laws of attraction that EPIC goals are met by EPIC experiences, one of which is our visit to the Election Commision (SPR) office in Putrajaya to see Datuk Wan Ahmad, the Deputy Chairman of the SuruhanJaya Pilihan Raya (SPR). Ironically, he was the person we quoted in our first ‘Voice your Choice’ shout out which made this visit all the more significant.

The reason why we had to meet up with him was actually a very crucial one. By now, you guys should know that this entire adventure is pretty much focused on registering voters. However, in order for that to happen there is one important thing that we really need, FORMS ! Of course it is only logical that registration forms for voters will not be handed out casually and given to any Tom, Dick or Harry because there is huge accountability and responsibility attached to it. Unfortunately, we have not been given such authority yet, therefore we absolutely need to partner up with the SPR to make this dream happen. As previously mentioned, there are actually 2 ways to obtain these forms, the first, which is from SPR directly, and the other through Assistant Registrars (who must be political party affiliated).

To be completely honest the meeting was arranged at rather short notice so we did not really know what to expect nor was there enough time to fully realise that we were actually meeting someone really important. This lack of preparedness I would say made the experience even more exciting and enlightening. Exciting because not every day do you get to travel to Putrajaya to meet a VVIP.

It was enlightening because our entire preconceptions were proven wrong as Datuk Wan, despite his huge office and esteemed stature seemed so down-to-earth and genuinely passionate and helpful about registering new voters, especially amongst the youth. Somehow, the impression we got from most people was that the SPR were politically influenced, inefficient, and not helpful. It is a sad preconception because it seemed hardly the case, as portrayed by the second in command of the Election Commission. We must say offer a big thank you to him for his warm hospitality, waffles and words of wisdom.

We later sent an official letter to request for the Selangor state SPR’s help in our events as advised by Datuk Wan. Amazingly, the Selangor state SPR offices replied immediately and agree to send 2 mobile teams to assist us. This is done even though there is the Hulu Selangor by-election to prepare for. This goes to show that not all that was spoken about our SPRs are absolute truth. We encourage you to engage with your local government to verify the truth of all that is being said about them. As we have experienced thus far, our Selangor state SPR was definitely making an effort to meet our request. And it is our hope that this will be true of all the state SPRs when we go nationwide in May (watch this space, we will report on our adventures).

I am very glad to announce that we should have sufficient forms for at least for two locations! I would also like to stress that everyone comes out and brings their friends along so we can tell the SPR and Datuk Wan that we are worth their time. Hopefully this would make them send more teams and bring more forms too.

To be continued…..