The 5th of May in the year 2013 would be a day to remember for many of us young Malaysians. First and foremost, it would be the first time that many of us youngsters would be voting. The sense of excitement and pride was so evident and palpable that it truly felt like we Malaysians were united regardless of beliefs and race. That of course goes without saying that 'Barisan National' (BN) or the National Coalition has always banked on and played race politics for as long as we know.
Race politicking might work on the older generation or back in the 50s, but it is slowly becoming irrelevant in today's setting. But of course it is not going to stop BN from using race politics to scare voters. Nonsense about a chinese Prime Minister (PM) and the Chinese ruling the country hence affecting the way of lives of the Muslim, blah blah blah, is thrown around. To those who believe it, you must be really dense. How can you call yourselves Malaysians? Are you even aware of your own country's constitution? Do you even know how secure your religion and special rights are? Tsk tsk.
And the second reason why the 5th of May will always be remembered is that we, the young ones, truly felt that change is on the way. It was our chance to vote out a corrupted and rotting ruling party. We all felt it to the core. However, looking back at it, we were probably too idealistic. We were all trapped in this bubble of wanting change so much that we could not or refused to see what was in front of us. The urban voters might be in favour of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) or the People's Alliance, but the majority of rural folks were for BN.
We were too idealistic. And we were severely disappointed with the results. The first time I have truly felt the disappointment of so many Malaysians. Me included. What went wrong? Where did it go wrong? Why it went wrong? How did it go wrong? When did it happen? When the results were slowly published on the Election Commission's (EC) website, the feeling of anger and disappointment was evident. I could still feel the crushing feeling I experienced, there are just no words to describe it.
To be honest, if BN had not resorted to employing underhanded ways of trying to garner a few more extra votes by bringing busloads of foreigners holding Malaysian IC's or having sudden blackouts and with it the magical appearance of new ballot boxes containing unaccounted for ballots, we probably would have been more accepting of the results of this general elections. I mean gerrymandering is already bad enough, we all know that the EC is in BN's pockets, but we did not want to witness anymore suspicious activities surrounding the elections.
Why can't they form the federal government then? Gerrymandering. Some constituencies especially the urban ones have more than 100 000 voters registered to vote whereas certain areas have only a mere 1 000. In any other democratic country, a vote of 51% for the party or coalitions would mean forming the state government. In Malaysia, not so. In essence, a lot of urban voters have chosen PR. Rural voters for BN.
There were quite a few surprise winnings and also surprise losses. There are more reports and incidents being circulated over the net and also social media right now that there are more fraudulent activities that happened after the closing of polls. I will not go into that as I feel that the official results are out and there is not much that can be done now. What is done is done and to dwell on these matters further will only be a waste of time. Let us just keep in mind all these and be on a better watch out next time round.
The fourth and final reason that I will touch on the general elections yesterday is that the overall attitude of Malaysians regarding the results. Yes, there were sore winners (we all know these types) and sore losers (and even more familiar with these group) from both sides. With that also came the gracious winners and gracious losers - very commendable these groups. But I will not touch on these. What I will touch on is the attitude of the voters who were pro PR.
At first, there were of course cries of bitter outrage and anger. There was also disbelief and sadness and crushing disappointment for many. So much so that many citizens changed their Facebook display photo to the colour black to mark a black day in Malaysian history. Some even go as far as to declare that democracy is dead or to call on the interference of Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth. Not a very smart move but emotions were running high as most results were only released around or after midnight.
But a miracle happened. Slowly but surely more and more Malaysians started accepting the results (despite how fraudulent we thought it was). What touched me the most was that more jokes were made in regards to all these obvious fraudulent activities like the use of foreign workers to vote and magical blackouts. Lo and behold! We were making light of the situation that we were so angry about earlier in the day. It was good because there were no trace of resentment in it. It was all done to diffuse tension and to work as an emotional panacea.
Malaysians truly needed a good laugh and a lighthearted moment. At least happy Malaysians will not be used easily by any of the running parties for election on these emotional highs to create trouble. When ballots were being calculated, there were fears that riots would start and a state of emergency would be declared. And wonder of wonders, Malaysians were in pretty good emotional state last night as to not behave recklessly. The feared riots did not happen. Nobody took to the streets. It was only all taken out on social media platforms. Quite safe I assure you.
These says a lot as it shows that Malaysians have grown and matured more than the BN government has given us credit for. Pakatan Rakyat might have lost this round and many sees it as a burial of the change that they would like to see happen. But take heart for we have only just begun. Just like in the Art of War, "Lose the battle, win the war."
The 13th General Elections might have been lost, but there is plenty of time to win the next one. I believe the next general elections will be more monumental than this time round. Let us start laying the groundwork to pave our way into Putrajaya the next time around!
Moving onward,
MaeQ
