I don’t think anyone forsaw or expected the historical election results. Not the voters, not the BN government and not even the opposition. No one did. But now that we’re here, what now? Whats going to happen next? I see many voters in euphoria but after the euphoria is gone, reality sets in. The stock market is down sharply today for example.  

Updated: The stock market hit limit down 10% during the day and had to be shut down for an hour due to automatic suspension under the stock exchange rules to prevent panic selling. 

Most Malaysians who voted, voted for change. They did not vote for the candidate or the party. They voted for change. But will change come? That remains to be seen. And like any change, change is stressful sometimes even if the change is good. And changes cannot happen overnight even though you may wish it does so one must be patient. And with change comes uncertainty and perhaps a short term instability.

I forsee lots of internal bickering and power struggles and fights on both sides. It will not be easy for the opposition coalition made up of a multiracial party, a largely Chinese one and an Islamic one to work together on issues of National interest. Not easy at all. Not with their different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

It is not easy to manage a country with diverse racial and religious backgrounds like ours. It is not easy to keep everyone happy, to make everyone feel that they are having a fair share of the pie. Even at the start the difficulty has begun. Now that the Indians have turned their support away from the MIC having cast out most of the leaders, they must still get enough voice in parliament as before or there will be unhappiness. Will the Chinese understand why the CM of Perak is not a DAP candidate even though DAP won largely in that state (if that happens). But then most of them do not know that there is a law that the CMs must be Malay in states where there is a Sultan. (or so I heard). If this is true than this should be properly explained to everyone or it could lead to a lot of unhappiness. These are really sensitive issues that must be handled with care less they escalate into unhappiness among the races. Actually the best man should be picked but I think we are still not mature enough politically to rise above racial politics.

Updated: “The state constitution rules that the menteri besar has to be a Malay Muslim, but Section 12(2) provides the sultan the discretion to waive the requirement.” sourced from NST Perak to get coalition govt, sultan to pick MB

Will the Malays in the states now ruled by PAS question any double standards if any for example if they disallow certain non-Islamic activities in Kelantan but not in the other states they govern? They have said that they will continue to allow those to go on because they have to respect the rights of their coalition partners. Malaysia’s opposition Islamic party pledges to respect minority rights.

And what about the candidates. Most of them are new and inexperienced. Most of them won because they were simply carried along with the wave of change. Some against better more experienced MPs who had been serving well. It will be no mean task for them to pick up the pieces or the shreds and give the rakyat the change that they crave. How do you change in 5 years what has existed for 50 years?

To me, the first thing that should go is corruption. It is because of corruption that we have potholes in our roads, schools that need to be demolished after they are built because they are not fit for use, buildings that collapse, bus drivers that continue to be on the road despite the fact that they have so many summonses, escalating crime rates etc. I think that these are the basic things that should be tackled first. Then there are the price hikes that cause unhappiness and there are projects that need to go on.  Gosh! There is lots to do and very little time to do it. They should prove themselves before the next election. Look at what happened to Pak Lah. He promised changes but he did not deliver.

But tackling them will be an uphill task. I just hope that the candidates that were carried along with the tsunami of change and appointed along with it will deliver and deliver fast. But it will not be easy. Not with the internal bickering and power fights that is bound to happen within BN (now that some of its pillars are out) as well as within the opposition coalition that is so new. Its just a political baby without the years of working together as a coalition as the BN has. Will they be able to work together? Well, I hope so for the sakes of all Malaysians.

It will be interesting to watch the new faces of Parliament next.


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