Sunday, October 18, 2015

What a pity when dogs cannot vote.

A picture of houses being demolished taken by yours truly.

A picture of dogs sent to me by a friend.

Last week a number of houses were demolished just a few kilometers from where I am staying. I am sorry if I don't get the facts right but from what I know the occupants had been staying on pieces of land not belonging to them, at least not anymore. Now the new owners want to develop their land, so the occupiers have to go.

In fact the occupiers were happy to go. The area was flood prone and some of them had moved earlier because of this. There was no proper infrastructure like proper roads because the authorities cannot just construct roads on somebody's land. 

The new owners had offered the squatters on their land some money for them to move. I think Malaysia is the only country where you have to pay somebody to move from your legally procured property.

So in came a political party who promised the squatters they would get more than offered by the land owners. At the same time the owners went to the courts and obtained an order asking the squatters to go. The government owned electricity suppliers were also served with a court order to stop electricity supply to the houses.

Without electricity the squatters had a stronger reason to move on. But to them whatever money being offered is a bonus. 

But this political party who had promised the squatters that they would get more felt embarrassed, if that's the correct word. Because before they could get 'A Few Dollars More' (sorry to borrow your film title, Mr. Leone) the authorities came with their heavy machinery. So the so called champions created a commotion on D-Day, not Decision Day, but Demolition Day.   

Their commotion resulted in some of them being arrested by the authorities. But that's what they wanted. The pictures of them being arrested were shown on the social media for the whole world to see. They wanted the world to see that they are the ones who care for the squatters. 

But a promise is a promise, so this political party opened a bank account for people all over the world to donate to these so called unfairly and unjustly evicted people. Their aim is simple, 'A Few Dollars More' for these people mean an equivalent or perhaps multiple more votes for them in return.

So I come to the dogs story. A few days ago one of my friends on social media showed me a picture of dogs trying to attack him. He said he felled and hurt his knee before managing to enter his car. I promised to do something.

The something that I did was showing the photo on my social media account but starting with the caption 'I don't hate dogs....' At the same time I forwarded the photo and caption to the authority responsible for stray dogs. 

Suddenly my post received numerous comments never obtained before as compared to my previous posts. Some 'friends' even showed photographs of what would happen to the dogs if they are captured. They would be 'resettled' on no man's or dog's land to cater on their on. Many had died due to starvation and other reasons. In other words the dogs will suffer worse fates than what they enjoy now.

Compared to the squatters who I said were more than happy to move, the dogs will face a life and death situation. 

Due to the amount of  'likes' and comments on my post, surely the people who wanted to raise money for the squatters were aware of the dogs situation. But I see nothing about requesting donations so that any captured dog will live a better life somewhere.  

What a pity when dogs cannot vote.

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