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Winds of change sweep Malaysia
Comment by Wong Chun Wai
THE first sign of a massive setback for the Barisan Nasional came at around 6pm. Incumbent Lembah Pantai MP Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil sent an SMS to say that she was going to lose her seat to her Parti Keadilan Rakyat challenger Nurul Izzah Anwar.
The ballots that were coming in did not look good.
The Women, Family and Community Development Minister said she had tried her best but gave an assurance that she was calm.
From Penang, my colleagues sent messages that Gerakan acting president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon was trailing newcomer Dr P. Ramasamy in the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat.
The Gerakan, MCA and MIC were all wiped out, they said.
It became clear by 9pm that the Opposition had snatched the state from the Barisan, sending shockwaves throughout the country as Malaysians braced for more shocks.
In Sungai Siput, MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu put on a brave front as feedback came from his supporters that he had lost his parliamentary seat.
He told them he was going home for a bath and did not return.
In the words of many politicians, it was a political tsunami.
There was more, Kedah also fell to the Opposition, then Selangor and Perak.
The wounds inflicted by the Opposition were easily the worst for the Barisan.
Even in 1969, the then Alliance only lost Penang and Kelantan.
In Penang, the then opposition Gerakan, together with DAP and Parti Rakyat, won 20 seats against the Alliance’s four.
In Kelantan, PAS had 19 and the Alliance 19.
The People’s Progressive Party could have formed the state government if it had decided to forge a coalition with Gerakan, PAS and the DAP but the PPP refused.
The PPP was just two seats short of forming the government but it refused to work with Gerakan, DAP and PAS.
Even in that onslaught, Kedah remained safely in the hands of the Alliance with 14 seats against PAS’ eight and Gerakan’s two.
Last night’s results stunned Barisan leaders and the media.
They expected the winds of change to come to Penang and Kedah but they missed out on Selangor, certainly the jewel in the crown for the Opposition this time around.
Barisan had focused its attention on the anti-establishment sentiments of the non-Malays but overlooked the mood of the Malay voters in some states.
There was even a sense of denial in some ways.
For Barisan, they had expected some dents in the predominantly Chinese areas and a serious challenge from PAS in the east coast states but certainly not in Selangor and Perak.
While the non-Malays had their share of unhappiness, there were issues that cut across all races such as the cost of living, corruption, mismanagement and security.
At the grassroots level, there were perceptions that Barisan, following the massive win in the 2004 polls, had become too strong and that there was a need for a strong check and balance.
In 2004, the Barisan had 198 seats against 21 for the Opposition.
The voters, especially those in the urban areas, obviously wanted to send a strong message to the leadership.
They wanted their MPs to be more humble and certainly more careful with their choice of words, whether at their party assemblies or in Parliament.
But there is a big mess to be cleared – new state governments will be formed in Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Perak.
As at press time, PKR secretary-general Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim is expected to be made the new Selangor Mentri Besar and almost likely, his predecessor Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, the opposition leader.
In Penang, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng will likely be the new Chief Minister.
But federal-state relations will never be the same again.
With the Barisan still in control of the Federal Government, it may even review its numerous projects in states lost to the Opposition.
As the most industrialised state in Malaysia, Selangor will be affected in many ways.
At local government level, there will be massive changes as politically-appointed councillors will have to make way.
At 12.30am, the Barisan had secured a simple majority to form the government although there were neck-and-neck races in many seats.
At the end of the day, however, the clear winner was the democratic system in Malaysia.
Despite claims to the contrary, the 12th general election proved that democracy was very much alive in the country.
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Results leave Penang in a daze
Analysis by Joceline Tan
THE superstitious would say that the darkened skies and torrential downpour in Penang about an hour before the close of polling was an omen of things to come. Like elsewhere, the poor voter turnout had Barisan Nasional politicians really worried. At about 7pm, the calls started coming in. It was not good news for Barisan, whose candidates in the Chinese seats were trailing their DAP and PKR opponents in a string of seats. It was the sort of news that induces goose pimples.
As the night progressed, it looked like the opposition wind in Penang had turned into a roaring typhoon.
The three opposition parties – DAP, PKR and PAS – had won a clear majority to form the state government.
Gerakan, MCA and MIC candidates had not made it in any of the parliamentary or state seats they had contested.
Gerakan lost all 13 state and four parliamentary seats, MCA lost 10 state and four parliamentary seats and the MIC, two state seats.
PKR had also made inroads into Umno and Gerakan seats, taking four parliamentary and nine state seats.
One Barisan politician described it as “a political tsunami with few survivors”.
Perhaps the most shocking news was the defeat of outgoing Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon in the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat. Just hours earlier, his operations centre staff had confidently predicted a 7,000-vote majority for him.
In fact, the national Gerakan leadership had been defeated. Apart from acting Gerakan president Dr Koh, the other casualties were vice-president Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan, secretary-general Datuk Seri Chia Kwang Chye and its top central committee member Datuk Lee Kah Choon.
These were stunning results that no one, not even those in the Opposition, had expected or imagined.
It is possible the DAP, which had made Penang its frontline state, was in as much shock as Barisan about the results.
The Chinese had translated their political disenchantment into votes and Malay votes had swung in a number of parts to PKR.
It was well known that the Chinese were not happy, but the Malay vote swing towards the opposition was not something that Umno leaders had expected.
There had been rumblings on the Malay ground because they are greatly affected by cost-of-living issues but few thought they would cast their votes elsewhere.
Dr Koh, who will probably have to do the bulk of explaining in the aftermath, had admitted a few days ago that Barisan could lose between 10 and 15 seats.
For several days before polling, Gerakan leaders had been talking about the ground being too quiet for comfort. They were disconcerted by the silence and their view was that people had decided whom they were voting for.
Some of them even felt that voters had “switched off” and were no longer listening because they had made up their minds.
“When we go on the ground, they don’t say much. They don’t want to listen anymore. I think they are just waiting for the day,” Gerakan’s Chia had said a few days before polling.
They did suspect that the silence may not be good for them but, as always, politicians are hopeful about their chances.
There was a sense of denial on the Barisan side about interpreting the silent ground and some politicians did not like it when the media wrote about it.
Reporters on the ground had already sensed that the rumblings about a variety of national and local issues were developing into a wind of sorts.
The last time something like this had happened was in 1969 when the then Alliance state government fell to Gerakan, then an opposition party led by Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu.
There will be a lot of soul-searching ahead for Barisan leaders in the state.
They will have to seriously examine the causes of the Chinese vote swing and the shift of Malay votes.
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