Voting: Elderly marginalised

Voting: Elderly marginalised

Natalie Shobana Ambrose | Mar 17, 08 4:22pm, Malaysiakini.

After 50 years of independence and 11 general elections, I was hoping that this year my grandma would be able to cast her vote without a fuss even though she uses a walker. At 89 years old, walking up the narrow staircase of a school building is probably as difficult as climbing Mount Everest at the age of 25.

At the last elections (2004), my grandmother was told that the room she had to vote in was upstairs. As it is her right to vote, she climbed those stairs with the help of her son. This year, I volunteered to take her in the hopes that maybe the powers-that-be would have wisened up and allocated a room on the ground floor with easy access for the disabled and elderly.

When we reached her polling station on Saturday, we waited an hour for a wheelchair but none came. After asking for help, they managed to change her voting room to the another room claiming that the one allocated upstairs was an oversight.

But then there was another problem. They had made another mistake - from giving her room which was upstairs, to giving her room a which was further away and in an elevated classroom with steps. No ramp, no help- just a loud mouth SPR representative and his assistants watching and twisting stories to a TV3 crew of why my grandma was still waiting to vote.

As we were leaving, one of these assistants asked if grandma has voted and I said yes and I continued to tell him that the last time she had to walk upstairs, this time after one and a half hours she'd been pushed between three rooms to vote at and finally the voting room was the furthest possible and without a ramp. His response? ‘We'll note this for the next elections.’ My response? ‘What did you learn from the last election?’

I wanted to continue with the ‘If she was your grandmother….’ but decided it would be wasted breath. This is most likely the last time she will cast her vote after having done so 12 times.

Maybe it sounds very personal. After all it's just one vote. I'd like to think that her vote makes a difference. She's at an age where she doesn't vote for herself - she voted for the future her great-grandchildren will inherit.

The radio advertisement said that it is our right to vote but how can we if there are so many obstacles? Fifty years since independence, 11 runs at general elections and we still can't seem to get it right.