... said:
if victor ma can persuade so many asians to vote for him(which is true for many obscure reasons i heard), you can try look at tackling that, so u r cutting down his votes as well as getting votes
but having said that, its hard cos he is asian and no offence you are not? so u need to be careful of how u sell yourself to them and make sure they see victor ma's weakness (ie how he used them)
No, unfortunately I'm a heterosexual white middle class male, so I'm not systemically disadvantaged at all! Yes, there are various rumours circulating about how Victor gets his votes.
Unfortunately, this is the situation: you've just come out to Australia, you only have a rudimentary understanding of English and know no-one here outside your community. You're in a foreign land with foreign people and a totally different culture. Someone comes round to your door, speaking in your native tongue, says he understands what it's like for you, and is here to represent your needs specifically. You'd be crazy not to vote for that person, cause you certainly would have no reason to doubt him.
Victor has such a strong powerbase because he plays the race card. And he has an unbelievable advantage because he campaigns in another language. It's virtually impossible to draw away from his powerbase in the way we're currently doing it. We need people who can speak Mandarin and Cantonese, who are willing to go around to students and simply talk to them.
I don't blame the Chinese students at all. I personally think they're being taken advantage of, and that's disgusting. I'd really like to try and breach the 'us' and 'them' mentality that exists on campus - I think it's really unhealthy, and has led to situations like this arising.
PwarYuex said:
Ballots close 11th May. It's ridiculous really, 6 weeks for a postal ballot. If you haven't voted in the first fortnight, you're not going to vote. Results will probably be known on the 12th. Win or lose you'll be hearing from me.
AsyLum said:
Well i think the majority of students a) wont care b) will laugh at his statement.
(victor that is)
Quite true. HOWEVER, that's entirely irrelevant unless the majority of students vote. See, the issue isn't what people think of Victor, it's what the people that VOTE think of Victor. If there are only 1,000 people that vote from a 30,000 student campus, and the majority of those are people from the Chinese Students' Society, then the fact that everyone else thinks Victor's a tool doesn't mean anything. Unfortunately. That's why it's so important that the voting turnout is huge.
Cyan_phoeniX said:
Why don't you get heaps of people to distribute that flyer which informs people about what sort of person he is? Or write down the url on the concrete in chalk. people who are going to be bothered voting will probably be bothered to listen about that
The chalking will come next week, count on that! As for a flyer - there's a few issues. 1. Photocopying in large quantaties costs money. 2. People tend not to read flyers unless they're bored, so it's kind of an ineffectual method. 3. We need to get past the people that can be bothered voting and speak to the people that CAN'T be bothered. They make up the majority, and that's where the election will be won. That's why people have to encourage their friends and pass it on. We need to break out of our circles and reach everyone else.
PwarYuex said:
Start a rumour that he's gay.
Sure, except I don't think the Queer Space, who are strong supporters of John and I (John is on the exec there) would appreciate that. I wouldn't want to tar the queer community like that!
AsyLum said:
i heard a girl the other day saying stuff about how victor ma's statement was unrealistic... i'm thinking she visited your site phanatic, she was using the same arguments
so is the idea of the no statement people to take up space that candidates from the opposition could be sitting in?
That was very possibly my friend Chloe. She's been campaigning lots for me. If it was someone else though, that's even better!
The people with no statements aren't taking up anyone's spots, but I think the idea is that if you're a student who sees all these names and faces, you'll be overwhelemed by it all and just not bother. 'Let the politicians play politics on their own' sort of thing.
Cheers,
Phil
