Sunday, March 09, 2008

Living in historic times

As far as Malaysians are concerned, we are.

Last night's election results were -if there's such a word- "tsunamical". Mind blowing in fact. Anyways, lets just recall the day bit by bit.

It was my first time voting, and naturally with everything that has been going on the past week -eg opposition ceramah's gathering up to 10000 ppl- everyone knew that this was not going to be just another election, but a rather pivotal one. And I, was ridiculously excited. So early morning 10am I marched off to the nearby polling station, and well, I was caught totally unawares of what I saw there.

Nothing.

Just a handful of people. In my mind I had always imagined it to be packed, with ppl screaming for you to vote their party as you approach the place, flags, hats, everything. But this was just quiet. So much so that I completely forgot about my earlier plans to take a few photos. The whole process took like 3 mins, go in, get your slip, X marks the party, insert into ballot boxes, and the end. Kthxbai go home.

So go home we did. And chilled for the rest of the day, talked a bit of politics with my tailor who came by to hand me some stuff that I made, and then waited. Till night.

To say that I am happy with the results is an understatement (for those of you who have no idea what happened, for the first time in 40 years, the opposition parties in Malaysia managed to reduce the ruling coalition's 2/3 majority). As most people are. No one had expected such a result, not even the opposition parties.

And for the ignorant, don't get me wrong. I'm no anti establishment person (unlike some muppet datuk on the tv3 interview who tried to fan some racial flames by saying the chinese in Penang are an ungrateful lot etc...until later they found out that selangor, perak and kedah -predominantly majority malay states- had also fallen to the opposition, and had nothing to say. In your face foo!), or anti malay or whatever. This is a victory for democracy, where previously they could change and amend the constitution as and when they like, but now no more. Finally after so many years there finally is a form of check and balance in the Malaysian parliament, and more importantly for Malaysia, a hope for multiracial politics, where we are no longer defined by skin colour, but are all Malaysians.

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edit: I found out the name of the racist muppet. Let's name him and shame him. Malaysia has no place for people like him. He's no dato, but he is as stated by Malaysiakini (in an article by Neil Khor entitled "DAP must rise above race now"):

"....On the national front, these gains can quickly turn sour if we allow certain racist elements to dominate the airwaves. Already Zainal Kling, emeritus professor at UPSI (Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris), deliberately explained the electoral results through a racist lens. He was on TV3 throughout the election results night refusing the accept the reality that Malaysians have rejected the BN's race-based formula in Penang, Kedah, Kelantan, Perak and Selangor. Most of these states have a overwhelming Malay majority..."

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So here's to a better Malaysia.

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And to make things even better:

Man U 0 Portsmouth 1
Barnsley 1 Chelsea 0


MWAHAHAHAAHAHAH


This has been one heck of a weekend I tell you.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

excellent results... but u forgot to mention one more result... liv 3-0 newcastle, and arsenal? ahem ahem..

daniel lee said...

liverpool will do well to qualify for 4th place :P

Irene Sim said...

same ere!! voting centres were empty! nothing like what i've imagined it to be... esp the '3-min kthxbai' part lol. good writeup tho.

L.vo said...

so i guess your plans to takeover the country remain in the pipelines...

daniel lee said...

l.vo: yeah bro! was just about to sent an email asking you were u following the news... but i reasoned u definately would. yeah my plans for dictatorship for now looks a bit redundant. Maybe melaka la. I be the new parameswara. wakakaka. hows CA1 la? =P

irene: hehe thx =)