THE poor response from Malaysians abroad to sign up as postal voters for the upcoming 13th general election speaks volumes as to how every citizen, at home or abroad, truly wants to make every vote count.

Only 6,298 of about 700,000 Malaysians living abroad (some say almost a million) took the trouble to meet the deadline set by the Elections Commission, which gives them the right, for the first time, to vote from where they currently are.

In fact, the actual number of votes may even be less because the reality of the situation is that only limited polling stations will be available for them to cast their votes. Someone in Australia, for example, may not, at the end of the day, take the trouble to travel all the way to Sydney to vote.

Overseas voting, from the Malaysian context, is very much a work in progress. But the EC must be commended for allowing it to happen. And it should also be open to suggestions to iron out the kinks in the process so that in the elections to come, more people who happen to be overseas at the time of elections will be able to take part.

There are, of course, many abroad who retain their Malaysian citizenship but do not really have an interest in the affairs of the nation, having comfortably settled down as permanent citizens elsewhere.

Then there are also those who continually criticise events going on in the country but are not willing to be involved in the democratic channels that remain open to them back home.

For these groups, they may not even be on the electoral roll, and can probably fall within the same category of people within the country who remain indifferent to their civic responsibility to vote.

But we must reach out to those overseas for study or work, whose heart is still with the nation. This is the modern-day reality whereby the young and the brave are challenged to venture abroad. Sometimes, it happens simply because the companies they work for have sent them to distant lands because of their talents.

The EC should consider ways of making these people have their say in the elections by putting in place systems that allow them to constantly update their whereabouts so that even at short notice, they can be quickly informed and be allowed to vote.

Malaysians, by nature, tend to leave things to the last minute and while ample time had been given to our overseas Malaysians to sign up as postal voters, many did not. Then, they blame everyone but themselves.

Let us all, at home or abroad, consider our right to vote as a sacred duty of our citizenship. We need to do our part to ensure we fulfil our duty come every election.

■ For more election stories, please visit The Star’s GE13 site

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