March 09, 2008

Malaysians have spoken

The votes had been cast and the results are out! The coalition party was denied their coveted two-thirds majority in Parliament and they lost Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor and Kelantan. And Samy Vellu was shown the exit.

My blog has been kept strictly private for my mundane updates on Yiu Yiu and personal stories but the fact that I'm penning this down now speaks volume about how I feel about the results. Over the last several months, I can't help but bit by bit, lose confidence in this country. I have doubts about what this country holds for Yiu Yiu and her future siblings. Today's results somewhat gives me some reassurance that all is not lost, that I'm not alone in feeling this way.

As I write, I'm still tuned in to the live broadcast on TV1 (after NTV7 and TV3 ended their transmission). And I'm really troubled by the comments made by the guests on TV1 and TV3. Comments about why Chinese voters swing to the Opposition this time, about why we should be thankful for the opportunities given to us, about how we should realise that Malays are still economically backwards, that kind of crap! This particular so-called political analyst on TV3 even derided how he doesn't think DAP can govern Penang well as they will have to work with PKR, a predominatly Malay party. I wonder who's practising racial politics here!

I'm happy the coalition was denied their two-thirds majority. And the fact that their parliamentary seats were contributed mainly by Sabah and Sarawak means they did extremely poorly in the Peninsula.

This is a wish list shared by a close friend, and I can't agree more:
1. An end to corruption.
2. Aid to the poor and disadvantaged irrespective of race.
3. Merit-based system in promotion for civil servants and education opportunities.

I really hope the Opposition will put their money where their mouths are – things cannot change overnight, that much i know, but at least we should move in the right direction slowly and surely.

6 comments:

jazzmint said...

this is a good lesson for the coalition party definitely

michelle@mybabybay said...

I want to see what opp can do too.

chanelwong said...

now it is time to see what diff will it make now..

Anonymous said...

Still in denial...It's really different with the common folks, who have been sidelined.

I had the same thoughts as you too. Hope that Opp will show some real action, and not just talk.

Liew said...

The BN only received 51% of popular votes though they won 140 of the parliamentary seats.

Well I think we should all be open minded about this. I believe this results will benefit M'sians overall

A Mom's Diary said...

Hopefully the results will wake BN up and things will improve, and let's hope the Opposition delivers too, for the betterment of the country.