Whoa, I did that !?

There I was, burying myself into the newspaper, sitting comfortably in my favourite couch. TV was on, American Idol was showing. Raised my head occasionally whenever Simon Cowell said something, curious as to how the contestant would react. Whilst I had my eyes fixed on one interesting article in the newspaper, I was surprised to hear James Blunt going "...beautiful, you're beautiful, and that's true ...". Put down my newspaper, and saw my one year old little boy playing with the TV remote control. I know the boy had been curious about the black thing that mom and dad keep pressing while watching TV. Wanting to see whether the boy would learn the functionality of the remote control, I started observing. Clever boy, realising that pressing that particular button will change the picture and sound on the TV, he happily continued and giggling away.

Voters' maturity was one revelation raised by analysts after the Malaysia Election 2008. But I was wondering whether the voters had actually gotten matured or the voters had gotten wise, and bold.

I'm sure election to a lot of Malaysian would seem almost like a chore that come around once every 4 or 5 years, nothing exciting ever happened. However, this time round, once the election results were out, I could almost hear a collective outburst from voters across the nation. They turned to their hands and went "Whoa, I did that!?". Some in relief as it finally happened, some in disbelief and amazement, and probably some in regret. Slowly, disbelief, amazement and maybe even regrets turned into power, people power. All the talks about democracy suddenly seem real. Patrons in the coffee shop and mamak stores are already talking about voting the Opposition out if their performance is not satisfactory. I don't think, we, the voters, had ever felt such empowerment before this election. It almost seems like there's a new player in Malaysia political scene, the silent one had spoken.

The new incumbents could no longer sit comfortably in their comfort zone and taking things for granted. More than ever, they would have to realize that the voters are their boss, and they have to bear the voters’ interest as the topmost priority. One wrong step, the voter would just take out the control, with a single press on a button, change their view. For now, they know they can.