The election’s over, so what’s next?

So the elections over, and the government would be form again by the Barisan Nasional party, albeit with much lesser majority this time round. The opposition parties have their big win this time round, taking a few states off the BN grip. I guessed whatever change that the people wanted has came into the picture and have now materialised.

This election has also kinda made Bersih irrelevant, as the opposition parties managed to deny the 2/3 majority of the BN party. Those claims that the elections in Malaysia were not fair and rigged would no longer be relevant anymore. And also, since now the MIC leaders has lost, Hindraf would also be irrelevant as there would already be the people that would represent them.

In Penang, DAP would be forming the new government, which makes BN the opposition party. The last time Penang was under opposition government was in 1969, when Gerakan was still the opposition party. Let’s see what or how the new government will fare and perform – anyway it’s what the people had chosen.

For me? As long as i still have my job and still have access to cheap custom car mats, i’m ok. I’ll just look and see.

Posted in: General

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 10:34 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “The election’s over, so what’s next?”

Med March 10th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

Hi,

I disagree with you that Bersih and Hindraf will be rendered irrelevant just because the Opposition won big. Bersih’s demands were not met – no indelible ink, the electoral roll is still flawed, there was domestic postal voting, media access was still limited. These demands will be addressed in ou call for a Royal Commission on Electoral Reforms. Winning big in the GE does not mean the system was fair. Bersih will always push for fairer elections as a cornerstone of the democratic process. The big win simply means that the people were fed-up and wanted to teach BN a lesson. This was a very ‘emotional’ election but the message was sent loud and clear to BN. BN is outdated, thinking they can play the fear/race card and continue to bluff the rakyat. The rakyat is now no longer scared. The Oppo parties only have the state governments, not federal governments. If the govt keeps on doing what it does best (marginalising non-Malays esp indians), Hindraf will continue to stand up for poor Indians. Hindraf has a role to play as a check-and-balance agent. We all have a role to play if we want to see Malaysia prosper as a whole.

ashotiwoth March 10th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

Med – thank you for dropping by. let’s see what i found out from the Internet on the Bersih & Hindraf issue.

From Wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersih), Bersih demands for the usage of permanent ink, cleaning of electoral roll, abolishment of postal voting and equal access to the media.

the permanent ink was almost a reality if not for some unknown reason. i agree that there’s a lot to work on regarding the electoral roll – the EC could have work with the NRD to sync up the data – at least that’s where they could start to eliminate all those dead voters.

while you may not agree on this, postal voting should still remained. Why? If no postal voting, the armed forces and the police force keeping our country safe could not exercise their rights. while their votes may be more towards the ruling party, but i’m not surprised as well if there’s votes for the opposition parties as well. you may argue why can’t the men-in-uniforms come to vote like normal people? if they do, who’s gonna watch our back? i may sound simple & shallow in this, but seriously, just leave them with what they do best – keeping us safe (although that may sound a bit corny).

media access is something i hope everyone got equally of. with mainstream newspapers in the ruling government control, i guessed it’ll take bold newspaper editors to make that happen.

on hindraf, i stand corrected. they have the hindraf adviser in the parliament, and more Indian MPs as well (compared to just a few in the last government) – thanks to the “wind of change”. so hindraf to me is a history.

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