It appears that in the rural areas of Malaysia, the people are still so poor that they will gladly accept a few ringgit to vote for the BN, something which no opposition party or independent candidate is in the position to offer them.

Forget about all the ‘support’ that they give to any opposition candidate during the campaigning period. This is merely to up the ‘ante’ so that more money and promises are forthcoming from the BN (and if they are lucky, from the opposition candidates as well). They think that they are being smart. They, of course, fail to realise that they are only deceiving themselves.

This act of self-deception has drastic consequences for them and for all of us over the next five years or so after any election, but will they ever learn? It has been going on for the last 50 over years.

Ironically, especially in the Malay-majority constituencies, it is not even necessary for the BN to pay anything other than for five some token food and drinks for the voters. These are the voters who will believe anything and everything that the BN and the BN-controlled media tells them.

Will the BN prove yet again that it can fool most Malaysians all the time?

The situation is so bad that in some, if not most, of these areas, the saying goes that even if you put a monkey under the BN symbol, it will win. And there are many BN YB’s who are arguably worse than monkeys (and that includes Khairy Jamaluddin). The only reason they are picked is to be ‘yes men’ for the prime minister. Just give them their daily bananas.

Umno is only too happy to let the prime minister - arguably now the sleepiest and most ineffective politician in the country - to get away with it as long as he delivers the goods each election – how is never the question.

Malaysians have still not woken up to the full extent that their country's wealth and resources have been stolen, siphoned off or wasted (thought sheer inefficiency and mismanagement) by Umno and their cronies, leaving the rest of us for generations to come paying for the damage.

This being the case, it is doubtful that the Ninth Malaysia Plan’s avowed intentions of eradicating poverty, etc. will work, since most of the allocations meant for the poor will be stolen by the BN monkeys who are about to be voted in to Parliament or rather by the sleepy zoo-keeper, Pak Lah and his cronies and family, unless the people really say ‘Enough is enough!’

After all, the people will end up paying for it themselves. Where else in the world can you find people paying to get cheated and stolen from? That is democracy Malaysian style. The people deserve what they get. So my dear Malaysians, vote wisely this time.