POLITICAL TSUNAMI

By now every Malaysian is aware that besides PAS retaining the state of Kelantan, the opposition had won an additional 4 states in the nationwide March 8th Election. Everyone, from the then ruling coalition to the opposition parties themselves, as well as the rakyak was shocked beyond words.

For once the whole nation were either glued to the T.V. or the net, waiting for results of the election. Nobody felt sorry for Samy Vellu when it was announced that he had lost. Sms-es poking fun at him supposedly looking for a job started pouring in minutes after his defeat was announced. Results of the opposition’s wins were belatedly relayed on T.V. Sms-es with details of who won and who lost flew back and forth the whole night, more up-to-date than the mainstream government-owned media. Much as I felt sorry for Dr. Koh & Dato Seri Sharizat, it seemed that this time the people had mainly voted for parties, not the candidates. Ironically, the ruling party is now the opposition in these states. Based on these results, it can be summed up that the people were very unhappy with the current government and were letting them know it through the polls.

Speaking for myself, I have never really taken an interested in politics. To be frank, the only reason I registered to vote in the first place was because somebody told me that if you skip the elections four times from the time you are eligible to vote, you could end up being deported. Fear of being ‘buang negara’ made me go to the polls for the very first time in 2004. But then, fed-up with the blatant corruption of some of these big shots, and what seemed like the government doing nothing to stop it, I started taking an interest in the political situation in our country. As mentioned in one of my posts, I started reading blogs like Malaysia Today and other independent media. Guess I wasn’t the only one. People no longer trusted what they read in the mainstream media.

Weeks before the election, the whole country was abuzz with anything connected with the election. Seems like everywhere you go, people were talking about it. Emails were going round urging people not to vote for politicians who were sexist, racist or corrupted etc. Many young people I know were regretting that they had not registered in time to vote. My office mates and I were united in our sentiments, we were pro-oppositions. Only 2 girls bravely told us they were sticking with Barisan.

This time round people were no longer afraid to declare out loud that they were going to vote for the opposition. It no longer mattered that the constituency we belonged to did not have the candidate or party of our choice. People were desperate enough to vote for any one of the opposition parties meaning that the Chinese and Indians were willing to vote for PAS and for once, the Malays also indicated their intentions to vote for the opposition, be it DAP or PKR. For that we have the mainstream media to thank because throughout the campaign period, they painted a rosy picture of the ruling party’s confidence in securing a huge majority of the votes. This made each of us feel threatened, and we each felt that we HAD to vote for the opposition just to deny the Barisan a 2/3 majority.

Days after the election, the nation is still eagerly waiting for post-elections news. Cabinet ministers had to be picked, along with the MB for each state won by the opposition. Speculations are going round as to whether Badawi would be forced to step down, and if so, who would become the next P.M.? Najib ? Tengku Razaleigh ????

Sadly, there have been bickering among the new ruling parties as to who should be nominated for position of MB, among others issues. There is also unhappiness over the declaration of certain policies being scrapped etc..

We should not feel dejected by these initial problems. The opposition parties have just taken over. I am confident that given time most of the problems will be resolved and everything will go smoothly in the end. We voted and we won. Now let us all be patient. Let's give them a chance to prove themselves.

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