Chinese T at Parliament: pictures
2010 is the Year of the Tiger and also an important election year in the UK. Current polls suggest that it will be a hung Parliament and the vote from minorities will be the deciding one on the fates of the Conservative, Labor and Liberal Democrat’s electoral endeavors. That was the theme at the Chinese New Year reception at Westminster. Every MP, councillor and the six Chinese PPCs (prospective parliamentary candidates) who attended made this the focus of their speeches in addition to the reminder that it is critically important for the Chinese community to register to vote and mobilize themselves to find out more about the political process.
At the moment there are no Chinese MPs so attendees were and are hopeful that 2010 could prove to be a breakthrough year for the community.
A by-product of the evening is that a BBC World Service producer wants to include me in various program strands in the lead-up to the general election. This is because she asked why people are so apathetic to the political process in the UK and how the Chinese community seems to be part of that apathy and lack of engagement. I shared with her that my family isn’t representative of that apathy; as soon as the electoral registration forms appear I ensure that we register and on polling day we make time to put our ticks in the ballot boxes. In fact, there was one recent occasion where there was a local council election and an anomalous oversight meant that my mother wasn’t able to vote and she was upset about this.
So……..MY FAMILY ARE REGISTERED AND WILL DEFINITELY BE VOTING IN THE MAY 2010 ELECTIONS.
Now, as a general rule we are apolitical — in the sense that we each have our own political affiliations (independent of anyone else in the family), we vote and we discuss global politics, but we don’t get into political stand-offs with other people. We respect that perspectives and political philosophies are diverse because the nature of human experience varies, culturally and ideologically.
Moreover, in our family history, politics has been the source, cause and solution of various situations. Without going into too much information, on the maternal side of my family there have been some important Chinese community figures.
In my own case I would say that I was more involved with political processes and interests when I was younger. At college, I was elected Chair of the Political and Social Studies Group (even though I wasn’t a humanities student like the other participants) and Treasurer of the Student Council. Later, at university, I was elected to the Student Council and subsequently to the Academic Board. All of these experiences involved listening to fellow students about improvements and changes they wanted, ensuring their interests were appropriately communicated to the teaching body and/or providing a platform for students to explore issues that mattered to them.
What I will say is that anyone who is elected into a position of responsibility and representation needs to be genuinely committed to their audience’s interests and to convert any concerns into implementable actions.
The reason people disengage from the political process and elected officials, I noted to the BBC producer, is for the simple fact that the operational turnaround of policy manifesto to legislative passing typically takes at least one term of office (4 years) and the small progress steps are rarely and inappropriately communicated. Ergo, people question what the point of voting is if they can’t directly EXPERIENCE any policy changes. This then makes them perceive politics and politicians as abstracts, removed from them, rather than as realities implementing solutions.
Anyway, amongst the 6 PPCs, there was one candidate I thought represented their party and themselves in an articulate and coherent way and has a good chance of being elected — despite campaigning in a constituency which is a long-time stronghold of another party. They also seem to have a smart online approach to communicating and engaging with their potential voters which will make a difference. People want candidates and information which are accessible, easy to track and comprehensible.
Now here are the pictures and some accompanying comments. Yes and, alas, the iPhone doesn’t take great pictures at night.
(1.) To enter the Westminster complex, there is a thorough security process to pass:
(2.) This is the Great Hall which has recently been renovated:
(3.) The speakers in a group photo and the 11-year-old girl is standing for Junior Parliament:
(4.) The photographers and press show their presence:
(5.) A side room for press and video interviews:
(6.) Simon Woolley, Chair of Operation Black Vote, tells the audience, “The Chinese Barack Obama could be in this room!”:
(7.) Later I open the Chinese fortune cookie handed out to me:
(8.) The message reads, “The opportunity to show your leadership will soon be here.”
LOL!
No, I will not be standing as a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in 2010 and have no plans to become the first elected Chinese MP in the UK.
I’d much prefer to be the person who contributes to cracking the conundrums of synergizing global human and machine consciousness to interconnected on+offline spheres of coalescence, coherence and contextualization.
