Oh... My... God...

Barisan Nasional (BN) of Malaysia loses its two thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat (the lower house of the federal parliament) and has only managed to cling on with a small margin.

The Malaysian Indian Congress (a component party of BN) president Samy Vellu lost to his opponent. Tragically, the day of the election and his resultant electoral loss is also his birthday. As a result, he will lose his ministerial seat which he has held for three decades. Unless of course he gets appointed to the senate and reappointed as the federal works minister as a senator, but I'm not too sure if the Malaysian constitution allows that route.

Meanwhile, Anwar Ibrahim's wife has successfully defended her seat and his daughter won her first election, both on Keadilan's slate for the federal Dewan Rakyat. Out of all the opposition parties running for the federal parliament, Keadilan has won the most seats. And in the state polls, the opposition has increased its control of state governments from one (Kelantan) from the previous election to five (Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor and of course Kelantan).

Wow! After five decades of BN dominance, the entire political landscape has changed. Of course BN will still form the new government but they will have a more powerful opposition to deal with in parliament.

Analysts say that this time, it wasn't just the Chinese and Indian voters who abandoned BN, but Malays as well. So will we see a repeat of post-electoral violence and death like the one that happened in 1969? I hope not. If things remain peaceful and transfer of state governments are smooth, then Malaysia and Malaysians have acquired a political maturity that does them great credit.

You know what would be even better? That the opposition comprising DAP, Keadilan and PAS can ditch the racial politics of BN and forge a new all-inclusive opposition coalition that really represents the interest of all Malaysians regardless of race. To expect them to merge and form one party would be too much of a fantasy lah. First, they will need to heal the recent racial and religious fissure that has erupted across the country. Once they have dealt with that successfully, then maybe a merger would be more possible.

Baby steps, baby steps.

Labels: malaysia, politics