The rakyat strikes back

On 8th of March, Malaysians from all walks of life headed to the polling stations for the 12th General Elections. Voting starts at 8 am and by 5 pm, the ballot boxes are closed and the counting process begins as the country's next 5 years hang in the balance. As every minute in the night passes by, the drama intensifies. The first few results to be announced were from Sabah and Sarawak and it seemed that the ruling coalition BN were leading with DAP capturing only the Kuching parliamentary seat.

I was watching TV 1 at first for the updates but eventually switched to Channelnewsasia when it seemed that the commentators there were talking lots of nonsense. Not only that, the speed of the results coming into TV1 were slow (probably intentional) as shock after shock rippled through. I'm actually surprised on the amount of coverage CNA has given to the Malaysian Elections and this was previously unheard of in 2004.

Around 8.30 pm, DAP claimed that the Chief Minister Dr. Koh Tsu Koon had conceded defeat. By 10 pm, it was confirmed that Penang fell to the opposition parties for the first time since 1969. Afterthat, news followed that PAS had retained Kelantan once again and even strengthen their hold there. Kedah also fell to the opposition with PAS set to be next state government. Nurul Izzah, Anwar's eldest daughter had won the Lembah Pantai seat. Samy Vellu lost heavily in Sungai Siput and Dr. Koh did not even manage to win his seat in Batu Kawan.

I watched the results till about 4am plus. By then, Selangor and Perak were shockingly reported as the new states to be under the opposition. Personally, I'm stunned especially on the results in Selangor. As a highly developed state, it has always being known to lean towards the ruling coalition. BN's loss in Selangor showed that the urban communities there are willing to throw caution to the wind for a change in Malaysia. 5 states will be under an opposition state government and 90% Kuala Lumpur under the opposition too. Altogether, the opposition won 82 parliamentary seats and more importantly, the BN were denied the crucial 2/3 majority.

On the morning of 9th March 2008, Malaysians woke up to a new Malaysia. I think the elections results are throughly unexpected by analysts, politicians, opposition, the media and even the rakyat themselves. In Penang, the opposition did not dream that they could make an almost clean sweep of the seats, much less decide who the next chief minister should be. The rakyat have shown that they will not be the silent passer-by anymore and they are not afraid to exercise their democratic rights. I'm proud to see that my fellow Malaysians have the courage to stand up for what they want. Now is the time spank those lazy constables and town councils who are sleeping on the job.

Hopefully, the two new MPs, Tony Pua and Dr. P Ramasamy would be a shining testament to induce more talented Malaysians abroad to return back to their homeland to serve. These two could have stayed in Singapore with a fat paycheck and joined many others who had abandoned the country in her time of need. However, they took the courage to stay in Malaysia to fight for the rakyat's justice.

The story doesn't end here as the opposition parties now have business to attend to, new chief ministers to be sworn in and executive councils being established. There isn't much problem with the chief minister post in Penang, Kedah, Selangor and Kelantan. The tricky one now is the Perak Menteri Besar given the nature of the coalition. Of course when I go back to Taiping, it would be under DAP now :) [something which I speculated already after seeing the shady M. Kayveas]