Political Tsunami
Today (March 8th) was the day of the 12th General Elections of Malaysia. But I'm sure you knew that, unless you:
a) Are not Malaysian
b) Are Malaysian but a social recluse, therefore disconnecting yourself from all external affairs and live a self-dug pit
c) Are Samy Vellu and probably wished that the events today never happened at all
As my father relayed some updates to me over Skype, there was one result which made my heart practically skip a beat. There was a sudden pang of excitement, sheer joy and surprise within me, but within a short timeframe of a few minutes, that excitement started to ebb away, replaced by a sudden dawn of realisation of the consequences that would be brought about by the outcome which my father had announced to me:
"The oppposition has taken Selangor".
My immediate reaction was to spit out whatever was in my mouth at that time (I think it was Nescafe). "Serious ah?" were the only two words that came to mind. I was in a state of euphoria because I am all for change. I've always wanted more opposition voices in the parliament for "check and balance" purposes. That's why I've been following been following DAP ceramahs online (especially Tony Pua) and I was very excited with how the opposition represantatives have managed to garner sizeable support through their speeches. My mom told me that in their speeches, they wanted to carry out their revolution by "sweeping out" the incumbents. I guess the public took it a little too literally and allowed opposition candidates to wipe the floor with their opponents. But while I want a stronger opposition presence in the government, I didn't forsee them actually seizing control of the state. The state in which I grew up in! Really didn't see this coming. I wonder what kind of impact that would have on businesses, investments and developments within the state and the important commercial hubs like PJU.
Key incidents:
It appears that the main losers are MIC with many of their senior members tasting defeat. However we actually have more Indians being represented in parliament now, except that they're mainly coming from the opposition. The Indian community never needed MIC to help them in the first place!
Keadilan is now the largest opposition party and should Anwar win the by-election after his ban in politics has been lifted, he would be the parliamentary opposition leader. PKR may have the lowest number of state seats, but they account for more seats in parliament. They will lead Selangor while DAP would head Perak and Penang whilst PAS grabs Kedah and Kelantan.
Oh yeah, should PJians stop using the term "opposition" to describe DAP and Keadilan? Now they are effectively just different political parties working together as a ruling coalition. Hmmmmm this would definitely need some getting used to....
OK. Time to be realistic. I've been scouring the net to see what people think of the election results, and what I've found is that people are rejoicing everywhere, and rightly so! (me included, to a certain extent). But while I'm somewhat happy with the inroads that the opposition have made, I think it should also be accompanied with a degree of caution and apprehension. After all, to all my friends who are living in PJ - have you ever lived under opposition rule before? How certain are you that they were not making any empty promises during their ceramahs?And now that city councils MPPJ, MPSJ etc. are under the opposition for the first time, it's going to take time to create synergy between them and the new state government... so there's going to be a lot of boo-boos in the system during the interim period, and what if they can't be ironed out? My conclusion is, happy as we might be that there's a breath of fresh air, we need to evaluate the opposition's performance within the next 5 years to see if they're right for us and whether they can take us forward. Sorta like a probation period for the long term. They've gotta prove themselves to us.
Long day, huh? I'll be praying for stability and prosperity for the nation under the new federal government.
P.S. Malaysian live TV coverage of the polling results was abysmal.
a) Are not Malaysian
b) Are Malaysian but a social recluse, therefore disconnecting yourself from all external affairs and live a self-dug pit
c) Are Samy Vellu and probably wished that the events today never happened at all
As my father relayed some updates to me over Skype, there was one result which made my heart practically skip a beat. There was a sudden pang of excitement, sheer joy and surprise within me, but within a short timeframe of a few minutes, that excitement started to ebb away, replaced by a sudden dawn of realisation of the consequences that would be brought about by the outcome which my father had announced to me:
"The oppposition has taken Selangor".
My immediate reaction was to spit out whatever was in my mouth at that time (I think it was Nescafe). "Serious ah?" were the only two words that came to mind. I was in a state of euphoria because I am all for change. I've always wanted more opposition voices in the parliament for "check and balance" purposes. That's why I've been following been following DAP ceramahs online (especially Tony Pua) and I was very excited with how the opposition represantatives have managed to garner sizeable support through their speeches. My mom told me that in their speeches, they wanted to carry out their revolution by "sweeping out" the incumbents. I guess the public took it a little too literally and allowed opposition candidates to wipe the floor with their opponents. But while I want a stronger opposition presence in the government, I didn't forsee them actually seizing control of the state. The state in which I grew up in! Really didn't see this coming. I wonder what kind of impact that would have on businesses, investments and developments within the state and the important commercial hubs like PJU.
Key incidents:
- DAP tarpau BN in Penang. Hammered. Swept away a-la-tsunami. Aggressive campaigning strategies in the island state paid off massively. Chief minister and Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon loses.
- Tony Pua (Oxford PPE grad of DAP) topples two-term incumbent Chew Mei Fun (MCA) in PJ Utara
- Nurul Izzah of PKR stages an upset over Shahrizat (UMNO) despite late scare of 14 uncounted ballot boxes (expect her to make way for Anwar in the next by-election)
- Samy Vellu (MIC) ousted after more than 2 decades in office (Happy birthday, btw!)
- PAS claims Kedah and retains Kelantan.
- Najib wins in Pekan by a whopping 26k majority while PM Abdullah Badawi scrapes home
- Blogger Jeff Ooi wins in Jelutong.
- UMNO's Khairy Jamaluddin wins in Rembau despite reports of the contrary
- Selangor falls with the opposition winning 35 out of 56 seats (breakdown: DAP 15, PKR 11, PAS 9)
- Perak also falls with the opposition claiming the major towns in the Kinta Valley
- Parliamentary seats as of 5.30 a.m. (219 of 222 confirmed): BN - 137; PKR - 31; DAP - 28; PAS - 23 meaning Barisan Nasional has been denied two-thirds majority.
It appears that the main losers are MIC with many of their senior members tasting defeat. However we actually have more Indians being represented in parliament now, except that they're mainly coming from the opposition. The Indian community never needed MIC to help them in the first place!
Keadilan is now the largest opposition party and should Anwar win the by-election after his ban in politics has been lifted, he would be the parliamentary opposition leader. PKR may have the lowest number of state seats, but they account for more seats in parliament. They will lead Selangor while DAP would head Perak and Penang whilst PAS grabs Kedah and Kelantan.
Oh yeah, should PJians stop using the term "opposition" to describe DAP and Keadilan? Now they are effectively just different political parties working together as a ruling coalition. Hmmmmm this would definitely need some getting used to....
OK. Time to be realistic. I've been scouring the net to see what people think of the election results, and what I've found is that people are rejoicing everywhere, and rightly so! (me included, to a certain extent). But while I'm somewhat happy with the inroads that the opposition have made, I think it should also be accompanied with a degree of caution and apprehension. After all, to all my friends who are living in PJ - have you ever lived under opposition rule before? How certain are you that they were not making any empty promises during their ceramahs?And now that city councils MPPJ, MPSJ etc. are under the opposition for the first time, it's going to take time to create synergy between them and the new state government... so there's going to be a lot of boo-boos in the system during the interim period, and what if they can't be ironed out? My conclusion is, happy as we might be that there's a breath of fresh air, we need to evaluate the opposition's performance within the next 5 years to see if they're right for us and whether they can take us forward. Sorta like a probation period for the long term. They've gotta prove themselves to us.
Long day, huh? I'll be praying for stability and prosperity for the nation under the new federal government.
P.S. Malaysian live TV coverage of the polling results was abysmal.
posted by Cyclonova at 1:11 PM
4 Comments:
The fact that the opposition took over 4 additional states surprised us all. It goes out to show that the discontent of people overwhelms any doubts towards the opposition. Everyone was voting with one clear mind - "BN OUT!"
I agree with you that nobody is certain if PKR, DAP or even PAS could deliver their promises. But they have not won everything yet, there would still be BN (Or should I say opposition LOL?!) to serve as a check & balance for them and vice-versa. Plus, I'm less worried with the presence of Anwar Ibrahim in PKR. He's a smart fella and I doubt he would screw the people lol.
As for Samy Vellu, he should be happy as we delivered his birthday and retirement present all-in-one-package. =D Shows that the Indians don't need MIC lolx.
Too bad Ong Kah Ting retains his position as there was unofficial news that he was trailing lolx. IMO, MCA is as powerful as MIC.
Anyway, glad to see a number of friends from our generation taking interest in national affairs. Especially the ones abroad. Sad to say, though, I know some people who wouldn't give a toss about the elections. The irony, isn't it? You bitch about how your tax money is wasted, yet you don't take the responsibility to voice it out.
I'm spoken too much. xD Cheers for the next 50 years of independence... as well as the Liverpool win, Barnsley win (Chelsea owned lolx!) and Manu's loss.
8/3 - EPIC day! xD
Wah, Eong Xien... your comment is as long as my post leh. :P
You know what irks me about Samy? He's so arrogant. Look at what he said in the papers... something along the lines of "this would be my last term in office". Hello? Is there any guarantee that he would actually win his contest and resume his seat in parliament? pfffffft. Now for the birthday party plans he had......
ZOMG 08/03 is really full of upsets. I can't recognise the 4 teams who are gonna contest the FA cup semis, apart from Portsmouth. I wonder if there are going to be people crowding at the mamak to watch this year's final... :P
hahah and then you see how BN was so confident of winning Penang that they even talked about three (not two, not four) possible candidates to take over Koh Tsu Koon's CM post.
now nobody's getting anything but Guan Eng. hehe. bet you were happy about Beruas's results. congrats! ^___^
Yeah, I wrote too much lolx.
Hahah... according to today's papers, Vellu's intending to stay to *FIX* MIC. Kemaluannya tak cukup besar ke lolx.
Well Barnsley has garnered some fans in the process, so who knows eh? =D CL would be interesting though, with the young gunners fighting for the trophy.
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