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.

Wind of Change ... Quake of Fluke ?

Flip a coin in the air. Odds of a Head would be 50:50. Flip two coins in the air. Odds of both coins being Head would be 1 out of 3. Flip 10.9 million coins in the air. Odds of all coins being Head would almost be negligible. Greater would be the odds of 1/3 of them being the same, but still very small, yet mathematically possible.

After reading so many analyses regarding the shocking result of Malaysia Election 2008, my logical sense opined that, whilst the contributing factor to the unexpected result was the "wind of change", the deciding factor, though, could have been the "quake of fluke".

The protest votes, the emotional votes, the angry votes, etc, are always going to be there. Current hot issues like inflation, crime rate, corruption, uneven distribution of wealth, ethnic right, etc would and had caused the wind of change to blow more votes towards the opposition. But, my logical and common senses, and so did most political analysts, would have it that, BN, by losing more seats, retaining a slim 2/3 majority in the parliament, losing 1 or 2 more states to the opposition would in itself stretched the odds a great deal.

What probably tipped the scale over was: there were these people who had been voting for the ruling party of BN all along. This time round, they were no doubt swayed by the wind of change. They wanted to voice their dissatisfaction to the ruling party. However, they would still prefer the ruling party to rule (I would think that stability should still be a top concern), albeit with a diminished majority. Thinking others who last voted for the ruling party would continue to vote for them, these people went to the polling station and mark an "X" for the opposition. However, fluke do happen and had happened. Everybody else who last voted for the ruling party had the same thought and did the same. The seabed shook a little bit, waves created, coupled with a strong wind above the sea surface, waves of 6 or 7 storeys height hit the shore (I always thought devastation of tsunami is too severe to describe the aftermath of the election on Malaysia political scene; parties within BN would probably feel like being hit by tsunami, though). With all the right buttons pushed, what was meant to be pushed towards the edge of the cliff had actually fallen over the cliff.

On the same night as the election, in the FA Cup football match between Barnsley and Chelsea, Barnsley, whose financial worth is probably thousands time less than Chelsea, were given little odds to win. Yet, wind of the day blew in favour Barnsley, Barnsley keeper stood just in the right position through out the match to make all the right saves, the contour of the football pitch dent in all the right way to favour Barnsley and against Chelsea, Chelsea was at their worst of luck in their kicks on the ball, and thousand and one other possibilities turned out in Barnsley’s favour. However small was the odd of these happening at the same time, it happened, and history was made. Barnsley won, and advance to the sem-final. Fluke? But, then again, allegation of football matches being fixed is always rife. With the amount of money involved in the betting ring, the theory never seemed far-fetched.

My Malaysia Election 2008

08-03-2008 (Saturday). Politic, to me, is a bit like the landscape in front of my house. With whatever resources I have, and within my compound, I’ll try to create a nice and comfortable living environment. And hope that others will do their part. Collectively, hopefully, a better neighbourhood will emerge. However, I can’t do much about the mountain, the valley, the river, or the sea. But, on and off, I’ll study it and give some thoughts on it. It was with this sense of indifference, I gave my vote that afternoon around 3 pm.

Polling station was quiet, not much people around. All was calm - nothing imminent. It started to rain around 4:30 pm. After such a hot day, it felt cool and refreshing. Voting closed at 5 pm.

Evening 8 pm, sat in the lounge watching TV, relaxed, switching on and off to channels giving updates on election results. Only results from Sabah and Sarawak, with BN winning most of them, shown - no surprises. 9 pm, still getting updates on and off from the TV, still Sabah and Sarawak results, plus a few from Pahang. A sense of uneasiness started to creep into my mind. Phone rang, shocking news. The opposition had won over Penang by winning all the seats they were contesting; Dr Koh lost. Unbelievable, maybe there's some miscommunication. Along with uneasiness, anxiety started to make their presence felt. Heartbeat was getting faster. Phone rang again, the wave of shock was starting to hit the shore. Kedah fallen to opposition. Perak fallen to opposition. Selangor fallen to opposition. Dumbstruck. BN lost 2/3 majority. The excessive shock was starting to turn a little panicky. This was way over unusual. Still can’t get any official confirmation from the TV though. Saw Dr Koh gave his speech in accepting his defeat, relieved (graciousness in defeat is one step away from any unwanted scenario). Midnight 1 am, still no official confirmation on the TV. Tired, went to sleep. Anxious.

09-03-2008 (Sunday). Confirmed, BN lost 2/3 majority, maintained simple majority, and lost control of 5 states. Not sure how to react. A sense of lost, maybe.

Pak Lah: this is how democracy works. Uneasiness, gone. Shock, gone. Panic, gone. Anxiety, gone. Excitement was starting to take over.

For days to come, I've never been more interested in our politics (actually I was more interested in the results), reading and watching and browsing all the analyses regarding the election.

The landscape in front of my house might not have changed much, but the weather has gotten cooler and more refreshing. Maybe, the rain just before the voting close was trying to tell us something after all …