THE PHANTOM USURPED.

When I was a kid, my hero was Phantom, a comic-book hero.In fact he was everybody's hero.

Before Batman, before The Shadow, before The Green Hornet, before The Lone Ranger, even before Captain Marvel and Superman the comics' first masked mystery-man hero had long since been striking fear into the dark hearts of the wicked.

Indeed, by the time the world-famous adventures of The Phantom were first recorded in print more than six decades ago, the grim champion of justice had already been around for nearly 400 years.

Such is the riveting, myth-freighted legend of The Phantom -- "The Ghost Who Walks," "The Man Who Cannot Die," "The Guardian of the Eastern Dark." In the beginning he had been a half-drowned sailor, flung ashore on the terrible, blood-drenched Bengalla coast after pirates burned his ship and slaughtered his mates. The gentle Bandar pygmies, taking him to be a sea god of ancient prophecy, nursed him back to fitness and became his everlasting friends -- as the castaway faced his destiny, donned costume and mask and was reborn as the first of the Phantoms, scourge of predators everywhere.

"I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty and injustice!" he cried as he formally took "The Oath of the Skull" by firelight. "And my sons and their sons shall follow me!"

The modern Phantom is the 21st of the line. Since Feb. 17, 1936, he has been the law in his dangerous part of the world, a one-man police force, a silent avenger who appears and vanishes like lightning. His home is the fearsome "Skull Cave," deep in the heart of his jungle. His only intimates have been the faithful Bandar, his great white horse Hero, his savage gray wolf Devil, and his lovely American sweetheart Diana Palmer.

HOWEVER, TODAY AND ONLY IN MALAYSIA THE WORD PHANTOM HAS A MOST DEROGATORY ASSOCIATION. THE PHANTOM'S OATH " to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty and injustice" HAS BEEN HIJACKED BY THE BARISAN NASIONAL PARTY AND DEFILED. TODAY THE EXPRESSION "PHANTOM VOTERS" HAS BEEN EXPERTLY CRAFTED INTO AN ARTFORM OF CHICANERY AND DEVIOUS MACHINATIONS TO WREST CONTROL OF CERTAIN CONSTITUENCIES. SOMEBODY COMPARED THIS ODIOUS ACT AS EQUIVALENT TO ONE SELLING ONE'S MOTHER, DAUGHTERS, FEMALE RELATIVES INTO PROSTITUTION TO BEAT THE COMPETITION! IS THIS MALAYSIA? TRULY ASIA?

On Friday 2Nov, Haris Ibrahim of People's Parliament, Ahirudin Atan of Rocky's Bru, Tony Yew of Can You See It, and I met some twenty Ipoh Timur constituents who wanted to know about the mysterious increase in the number of new voters injected into their constituency. An increase of some 8000 voters, 3000 of which will be postal votes surely triggered off the alarm bells.

We arrived just before 3pm at the Perak Election Commission office and met two groups of people. We told one group that they could not be included in the dailogue because they belong to the Gopeng constituency. The meeting took place at the Meeting Room and it was chaired by an En. Othman who sat in for the Pengarah who was urgently called to PutraJaya! He started the meeting by declaring that he was in no position to make any statements when he realized that the Press was present. Body language changed when we informed him and his two lady officers that four of us were bloggers but had come from KL to assist the Ipoh Timur group. With this assurance the officer acted congenially and even asked that a notebook be hooked up in the room for the group to check on their registration. Let me put on record that En Othman and his assistants acted professionally and friendly.We presented to the officers three cases for their attention:

Case1: Mr. N H Wong asked why he was transfered to vote in another constituency when he voted in Ipoh Timur in 2004. He still resides in the constituency.

Case 2: Mdm Wong Lee Li had never voted before. When urged by friends she registered but found out that she was registered to vote in Kebun Teh in Johore Bahru and her registered address in JB was 37 Jln Nibung, Taman Kebun Teh. Mdm Wong said that she was born in Ipoh, worked and lived in Ipoh and has never lived and worked in Johore Bahru.

Case 3. Rocky too had never voted before. Upon registration in KL in September 2007, he was told that he was a registered voter in 1999 in the Gopeng constituency! His residence address was 59 Jln Raja Mewa Mahidi, Rapat Setia. Rocky produced a police report to protect himself and to lodge a protest that someone falsified information to SPR and voted in his name. Rocky can't remember working and living in Perak.

So where does Phantom Votes come in? In the span of 4 years it is not possible that the people of Ipoh Timur went on a frenzied breeding spree!!! to up their voter eligibilty by some 5000. No new army camp was mobilised and definitely hundreds of police balai did not sprout profusely in Ipoh Timur. Your guess is as good as mine how useful the role these 8000 odd new voters would be. This figure is suffiient to show Uncle Kit his exit from Ipoh Timur.

AND THESE ARE MERELY THREE CASES. AND THERE ARE A FEW MILLION ELIGIBLE VOTERS OUT THERE STILL SITTING ON THE FENCE. GO REGISTER TO VOTE UNLESS YOU WANT TO PROSTITUTE YOUR SACRED VOTE. STOP WHINING AND SAYING THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS BAD. YOUR INDIFFRENCE IS THE MAIN CAUSE. YOU ENCOURAGED THE GOVERNMENT TO CHEAT. YOU DESERVE THE GOVERNMENT YOU HAVE

REMEMBER 10 NOVEMBER, 3.00PM DATARAN MERDEKA.
BE PART OF THE YELLOW WAVE.