No Finish Line...

Post Mortem

Uh Oh Hmmm... Ho hum. Well... Its official.. No landslide victory for the National Front (Barisan Nasional)... No making up the numbers for the Opposition. Nope. It was a shocker that nobody would have forecasted...

... A 60%-40% win for BN in Parlimentary seats. Nothing like the 2/3 or 75-25% widely expected.
... BN didn't manage to win back Kelantan state. It was more like a whitewash win for PAS.
... BN lost another additional 4 states to Opposition. Kedah, Perak, Selangor and Penang. Major states at that.
... Transport Minister, Information Minister and Deputy Head of Wanita Umno all lost...

My sentiments? It was all about voting against, and not voting for in this year's General Elections. It was not about voting for the party you believe in... but more of voting against the party you just love to hate.. In a decision-making process, it was selecting the lesser evil.

Me? I didn't vote. Didn't even register. Wasn't at all interested. I didn't really care whether BN had an avalanche of votes (phantom or not) or whether a tsunami blew thru the elections like it did. I was resigned to the fact that every country and every political structure in the world was corrupted. It was all a matter of how well they covered it and how well they took care of the welfare of the citizens. I guess Malaysia fared pretty badly, as the consensus of the general masses was "BN sure win, lets just vote for the Opposition, so that they dun win by so much and become egoistical"... Little did they realise, it became the domino effect. One by one, each vote cast had the X mark on the Opposition side of the ballot paper.

Nobody really cared who the actual candidate was representing PAS, or PKR or DAP... As long as it was BN on the blue side of the ring, they were rooting for the red side. Case in point... Defending Heavyweight Champion Lee Hwa Beng vs Rookie Loh Whatz-his-name.... Winner? Not the defending champion, although he had done loads and represented his constitution well..

Another case in point... Back in my hometown of Teluk Intan, running for the parlimentary seat was incumbent Mah Siew Keong (who according to everyone I spoke to has done a good job) vs an Indian dude who doesn't even stay in Teluk Intan. And because Mr Mah has the BN logo on his side, an outsider beat him to the seat. An outsider who may even have to ask directions to get to the post office (I presume), an outsider who calls Ipoh his home.

I dun really support BN, but I wouldn't put my fate in the hands of Opposition rule either. My opinion, if it holds any weight, is that an ideal situation would be:
- exactly a 2/3 majority win for BN in parliment,
- the loss of 2 states (Kelantan and Penang) to the Opposition,
- close fight with simple majority wins for BN in other states

This would give BN something to think about... of how close it could be for them to lose their standing... of how the voice of the people need to be heard. This would also give the people a first hand view of how the Opposition would perform if given the chance (in this case - Pg) without the risk of putting a huge number of eggs in 1 basket.

As it is now, Opposition has power in 5 states... big ones at that like Selangor, Penang and Perak... And if I were to liken Malaysia to a chicken, its as if Opposition are feasting on the breast, thigh and drumstick as we speak (I use chicken as an example, not cows or pigs so as not to be racially-sensitive). Are we confident in giving such a big chunk of the chicken to them? Are they experienced enough to cope? Do we expect miracles in the next 4 years? Do we REALLY expect them to reduce the price of petrol???

However, I guess one good thing has come of this... In the past, it was widely regarded that BN was flaunting their power, and the Opposition was trying their best to be roadblocks. Now, with the split in power more even, both BN and Opposition will be all out to try and prove themselves. BN will want to recover some of the trust they have lost... and Opposition will want to prove that given the chance, they can be the real deal.

Lets hope the winds of change and the so called tsunami sweep thru and uncover some hidden gold that we never knew existed.

posted by CapArnabBrand @ 8:28:00 PM