The Aftermath

I stayed up till nearly 4 am to catch a little of what hope to see our PM, AAB to give a speech on the aftermath of the elections. I too was hoping to catch the parlimentary seat vote count for the Selangor state especially for the Kelana Jaya seat.

However as things unfold, though at that time, there were no news of our beloved Datuk Lee Hwa Beng, i called it a night. I knew that more bad news were to come, for political giants have fell ungracefully in the very own system that brought them up. The People's Voice.

Penang to start of with was the first state that I had my eyes on. This state which i thought had a little advantage of influence of our PM at Kepala Batas would have a very strong fight. I silently knew that because of the economic background of the people of Penang, BN might lose the state and the opposition, with some luck, would be able to eek out a 2/3 majority. Nevertheless, i was never expecting what the result would turn out to be. Penang was a white wash. With much abuzz of Koh Tsu Koon going up to contest a parlimentary seat and with the fight among the Gerakan leaders on who to succeed the CM post in Penang, I thought the people of Penang would at least give some face to Gerakan. I really didn't expect such humiliating defeat in Penang. Gerakan are left with nothing in a state where there were a force to reckon with.

Next was Terengganu. I honestly thought that Terengganu would be back into the hands of PAS, knowing how well they wrestled it during the 1999 elections. Kelantan obviously the stronghold of PAS and BN with Khairy shouting 'PADE DOH' in Kelate during the press conference certainly did nothing but to unite the wills of the Kelantan people further to prevent the change of BN to take Kelantan.

But as the results came rolling in, states like Kedah, Perak soon fell. Perak which houses power horses like Lim Kit Siang of Ipoh Timor certainly put the opposition in the driving seat by winning of such a huge majority. Soon Ipoh Barat also went to the DAP and Taiping which was spear headed by Kayveas also fell to Nga of DAP.

All was not that bad to swallow till the arrival of the news of Samy Vellu losing his Sg Siput. This incumbent here is the strongest I personally felt to retain his seat. What his lost actually mean? How come he's being betrayed by his own people whom he claimed were behind him to the very end. I remembered during a press conference he gave to The Star which he bravely commented come what forces or an army he shall defeat it. The lost of all the top leaders of MIC, Samy, Sothinathan, his youth chief and the MIC wanita chief also were booted out. MIC is in crisis. And so is Gerakan.

MCA in this case still had a little salvo compared to MIC or Gerakan. Ong Ka Ting survived a scare which initially was thought had lost his seat as well. And surviving this election was also Ong Ka Chuan. However many deputy ministers and were shown the exit and even Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun as well as Donald Lim were thrown out. Never I had expected Tony Pua to have unseeded Chew Mei Fun by a whopping 19k votes.

The best one came from Teresa Kok who garnered 36k votes more than her opponent, a rookie, Carol Chew. Teresa Kok, who was attacked by comic strips of her hanging in the very streets of Sri Petaling showed that BN, who used banners depicting images that degrade her as a women, that the people were offended by the disturbing supposedly hilarious comic. What irked the people was she was contesting with another women who did not make any noise as these degrading comics were put up.

Which now leads to the womens minister Sharizat losing her seat to Nurul Izzah, Anwar's daughter. At approximately 12am, there were reports on 14 uncounted ballot boxes in Lembah Pantai and this threw in speculations of BN wanting to win and cheated on these ballot boxes. However the results still were the same and Nurul Izzah won the Lembah Pantai seat.

Coming on to my very own KJ seat which saw our Lee Hwa Beng against the VK Lingam video shooter Loh Gwo Burne. Tables were turned and saw Loh overthrowing Lee with about 5k votes. I would have thought Loh shall lose. I thought Loh WILL lose. But the people made a radical change in their minds, especially the Subang Jaya people who stood by Lee during his tenure in the state government. When i got this news, i realised that things have certainly got out of hand. A radical political change has taken place. The old replaced by the new.

Now, with BN denied the 2/3 majority, and with states like Selangor, which never has been in history ruled by an opposition party, still proceed on with development as promised? Will projects be continued? Will an LRT line be built through the housing estates of Subang Jaya? Will the MPSJ now be watch closely as ever by the DAP? Even though the DAP won 15 state seat as opposed to Keadilan 11, Keadilan sec-gen Khalid will be our Menteri Besar and DAP's Teng Chang Khim will be the deputy MB. It has been agreed upon that should the opposition take Penang, it will be DAP that will be elected as the CM of Penang. And so Keadilan was given the position as the MB of Selangor.

This day is a day of political reformation. MIC's party has turned to shambles. With Mahathir and Ling Liong Sik retiring gracefully from the scene, (not much of Mahathir but more to Ling Liong Sik) Samy Vellu's lost was a way of him quitting politics in an unorthodox fashion of disgracefulness. Never in his life he would have thought of this day. Never in his life he would see his top guns fell one by one in the hands of the Indian voters, the very people that brought him up at the first place. His time is long overdue. And certainly HINDRAF issues were now shown out bright that the Indians are a marginalised lot.

What holds for MCA and Gerakan? Gerakan acting president Koh Tsu Koon is expected not to continue his political involvement in Gerakan. Which leaves the president post suddenly vacant. Will internal power struggles for Gerakan doom it's fate? Or will Koh remain steadfast and stay on and plod on in Gerakan to do major corrections for the next elections in another 5 years?

This results here today showed the world that the BN indeed has always done things unchecked, and we have set down our ultimatum. We are fed up with the empty promises that were given on manifestos before the 2004 elections which were undelivered till today. Corruption is rampant and has to be stopped. Progress must be made in order to restore the image of the ruling coalition.

I personally feel that MCA and Gerakan were the victim of the atrocities of UMNO. UMNO is already paralysed. A vote for MCA or Gerakan or MIC is a vote for UMNO. A vote for UMNO will only let them continue their legacy of corruption that plagued our nation for ages. This is a strong message to the PM that every action that he takes now, will be scrutinised to the very core. Contracts will be tendered openly. Khairy overzealousness in entering the political scene and racist remarks certainly made BN pay dearly for the innocent leaders of coalition parties. Controversial sale of ECM Libra and his appointment in several major posts have shown that he is abusing his position as the son-in-law of the PM for personal gains. His rise into politics is nothing but short cut due to his position as a relative of the ruling government. He was from a nobody to a somebody in just a matter of 3 years. Though his participation in politics were angered by some UMNO politicians, they have decided to be mum on the issue for they themselves know there's a pool of money to be made. This is the reason for the downfall of other innocent hardworking politicians.

MCA, Gerakan and MIC were dragged into the net by UMNO. The BN is shakened up. The people have spoken out loud. Change is what is needed. The people now voted not for the leaders of respective constituency but voted against the government because of pent up anger and frustrations that were too much to be handled. Even though in my opinion, Chew Mei Fun and Lee Hwa Beng or even Donald Lim had indeed kept a clean record, the people has put a cross on the opposition because they were sickened by actions not of MCA nor Gerakan nor MIC but of UMNO. Due to the coalition, when a puncture is done on the boat, the boat sinks and along with it, and so does the parties that make up BN.

People now do not believe much in the mainstream media. The young have uses the internet which now bloggers become the political watch dog of the government. The newspapers and the radio now airs news that much has been cast doubt upon. The mainstream media now isn't the main source of information but of the internet. However, I would say that only certain not all information should be believed in blindly. One should always use their faculty of thinking to process every information and not to be followed without reasoning.

A lot of tears were shed. And those were neither tears of joy of rookies that made the lines of the opposition. But tears of supporters of incumbents who felt that because they were in the BN coalition, their position is compromised due to the hatred and frustrations to the government. Now however lies this BILLION DOLLAR QUESTION.

Will the opposition now deliver? On states like Selangor and Kedah who were never ruled by opposition on a whole, will the opposition continue development? Would now scholarships or entry into the local universities for tough courses like medicine or dentistry be given more based on meritocracy? Must well deserving students go to Micheal Chong with result slips be shown to the public in The Star because being denied a scholarship by JPA or denied a place in the local universities? Or the more important question is the GOOD GOVERNANCE of the town councillors e.g MPSJ, MPAJ etc.... Will progress be continued as promised by the BN since the BN is still in power although with reduced majority?

These are questions that will be answered in phases over the next 5 years. We have voted and we have voted for change. Should things not go our way, we should blame ourselves because we have chosen and decisions were made. Let us now look for a change for the better. Let us now make our voices heard in the government. This is what we are looking for. Ministers who do things unchecked and hoping to be kept in silence will now think twice before doing so. More and more scrutiny and transparency will be called upon.

Waves of changes now hit our shores. Let us now embrace this change, for this change is what we have voted for. It is not a time to celebrate on the streets for we voted against the government not because of lack of development but more to the misappropriate usage of funds and for a better transparency at every level of the government. In the end, it's our money that we care for and not should not be used simply.

I here now look to the future. The old replaced by the young. It's the change of an era of governance. That's what we need. The young (21-25 yrs old) which comprises of nearly 30% now of the population should be aware of changes that are to come. We unite for a better Malaysia. For a fair Malaysia. For an equal Malaysia.

Malaysia Boleh!