The F-factor ( and X men)

Talking to a  businessmen acquaintance while doing some banking yesterday. Few months ago, he was an  ardent supporter of a 2 party system. I could sense a change in his thinking.

He was worried that there would be unrest and thus  his business and livelihood would be affected. He now opined that it was better to live in a corrupt but  relatively peaceful environment than to have unrest like those in middle east.

This is a man in his mid 50s. I can sense that many businessmen think like this person.

Even though I reassured him that we can change without going through the unrest stage, using our votes, he was not convinced.

This is a result of the F-factor (fear factor) that was the latest weapon of the outsourced NGO, the head of which had uttered a clear threat and no action has yet been taken against him.

This couples with the ‘no-representation’ card played by the DVD actor seems to target the older generation of urban people to vote  Big Brother again.

Many of the older generation would fall for this since to them, any chance of upheaval must  be resisted. This is especially true for those businessmen who are afraid of rocking the their own rice bowls..One very well known businessman has actually told me that ” clear water has no fish”, and he is willing to pay the price of swimming in murky water just to get some fish.

I witness one clear sign  of this F factor; I was in Carrefour doing my monthly grocery purchase day before, and I see some of these people stacking up their push carts with stacks of rice and cart-full of instant noodles…..

I do not blame this type of mentality.. especially after the F-factor was blatantly uttered.

To counter this F-factor, those who advocate for change must do their part to haul in all the eligible youngsters who have not registered to vote. There are 4 million plus eligible youngsters who have not registered . Many are overseas , but majority  are in Malaysia, they must be persuaded to register and to vote.

I would like to call these unregistered young people ‘the X-men’. Most of them would have no qualm voting for change, and if all 4 million of them register to votes, they would comprise of at least 25% of all voters. AT present, there are 12 million registered voters, and with the addition  of these 4 million, it would become 16 million.

We need these X men to fight the F factor, and these X men need to register fast, for GE is probably around the corner.