Thoughts - GE14 Malaysia

“革命尚未成功，同志还需努力。The fight has not ended, yet.”

I think no matter what the results are, it serves as a good ending for the story.

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**This is just another reflection post regarding GE14. If you are tired of political posts, dislike me or simply too lazy to read more than 140 characters, feel free to leave a like and scroll on to continue your happy life.

I woke up at 6.30. Dim light shone into the room through the half-drawn curtains. I looked at my index finger, which looked as if it has worn a ring Horcrux: dark-coloured, wilt, and pretty much dead.

My thoughts were blurry until I picked up the voices from the radio coming out from my mother's room -- the morning news session.

I climbed out of my bed and turned on the Wi-Fi router (health tip: switch off your wireless devices during sleep to delay your death). The voices were getting clearer as I moved closer to the room; they were not commenting the election results. Had the session passed? Maybe the official results were yet to be released; I strongly doubted it.

I picked up my phone and the screen flared to life. The first image was the live results website that I used last night. It showed that the Coalition has won.

No, I thought as I quickly dismissed it and switched to Facebook, I am not looking for this.

I want the official results.

As I screened through the posts, I recalled the news I saw last night, which claimed that the opposition had held some of the states. Some of the aunties’ voice messages from my mum's group chats even said that they had won.

I remembered how similar news had surfaced during the past elections, yet in the next morning the officials declared a different outcome. Whether the ruling party had cheated or the oppositions had been bluffing I do not know, but I had learned that all are in the hands of the Election Committee, whose full interest was often not the will of the people.

There's no solid proof (at least not that we have found) that if the Committee was bought, but it is undeniable that they have failed to facilitate the people to execute their rights: delay in postal voting, preventing the people staying in neighbouring countries to use postal voting, setting the voting day on a weekday, low efficiency on the voting day seen in some stations.

When I was back to Singapore, my foreigner friend asked me if the results reflects the wishes of the people. I was tempted to say yes, but I knew better: Pakatan had only captured 40+ percent of the votes; there were more than half of the nation who preferred other coalitions, and the number may vary if we factor in the unregistered voters, whose sheer number is large enough to form another party and sweep the contest.

I remembered how the people used to teased the ex-ruling party in the past five years: they had gotten less vote count than the opposition and was yet able to seize power due to gerrymandering. At least, this time, Pakatan had gained the most support.

The day passed quickly, just like what would happen in the movies when all the “bad guys” had been defeated. Shortly after the media session, DSN made a post, under which people were expressing their appreciation to the ex-Prime Minister (with, still, a minimal amount of words of hate). Sadness overwhelmed me for a moment.

Well, while there is no need to reemphasize the scandals and poor governing under his rule, DSN was still a Prime Minister of the nation. Many of his legacies, such as UTC, BRIM, HSR, new lines of MRT, the soon-to-be-completed Tun Razak Exchange, will benefit the nation and people (unless, of course, our new PM decides otherwise). It will be unfair to see just one side and ignore the contributions made by the former country leader.

All our past Prime Ministers have been granted the titles of “Father of XXX”. I wonder what title will be given to DSN. Some say Father of Democracy sounds good, as he has, indirectly, created the history of party switching in Malaysia.

Funny how such noble value came from a seemingly “bad person”.

I don’t know if the people will forgive the wrongdoings of DSN, just like they pardoned (or many claimed not to) the he-could-have-done-it-better policies and actions of the Tun Mahathir during his previous reign. Perhaps after 30 years Pakatan will be corrupted, and a 90-year-old DSN will emerge as a “good guy” fighting for and with the people.

Malaysians always joke that we are the bosses of the country only once in five years. After since I have started to concern more about politics, I have to disagree.

Being a boss is not about hiring people and paying salary. It's about guiding the workers along the path you want the company to take. It's about nurturing the employees to become what's the best for the company. It's about setting up a role model for the people to follow.

If you perform your role as a boss only around the election periods, well, you can’t blame your employees for treating you nothing more than an ATM machine.

And when you fulfill all these duties, you are no longer the boss of the country.

You are the leader of the nation.

May you and I, the people of Malaysia, be the leaders of our country, for the many years that the nation shall prosper.

#GE14

#sayaanakMalaysia