The Waves of Change

“This is shocking news indeed!” said the beautiful event coordinator of NTV7 in her fluent English and pleasant voice that can rival the newscasters of CNN. “Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Datuk Seri Samy Vellu and Datuk Seri Shahrizat were all defeated in the election.” Well, that was really shocking news to me! I too, was stunned to hear the defeat of the big guns at 10:30 p.m. yesterday, Saturday 8 March 2008.

It was a night of double excitement waiting eagerly in front of the TV for the results of the 12th General Election of Malaysia. To make matters even more exciting, the BWF Badminton Super Series All England 2008 was telecasted live simultaneously at RTM2.
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Night of the Underdogs - Hannah Yeoh

I have to switch channels just like the election coverage tossing from command centre to the various counting centres. Lee Chong Wei and veterans Chong Tan Fook – Lee Wan Wah were all crashed out in the semi-finals of the All-England badminton championship: just like the big guns in the election.

At 11:05 p.m. Datuk s. Kayveas (BN Taiping) lost
At 1:20 a.m. Jeff Ooi, the Blogger, won the Jelutong Parliamentary seat with a 16,246 votes majority.

From the huge turn-up in those ceramah conducted by the opposition parties during the 13 days of campaigning, we know the waves of change were strong. But mere turnouts can not transform into votes, the opposition candidates were wary of the repeat of past elections. However, one indication of strong support was that the donation received from the ceramah was very encouraging. As ChinYH (a pacesetters runner) said when I met him at the ceramah at USJ 12, he donated RM50 in the earlier ceramah, and that put my donation into shame.

In my constituency (Subang Jaya), as predicted based on the strength of the waves of change, the two new and young electorates won.

P104 – Loh Gwo Burne http://lohgwoburne.blogspot.com/
N31 – Hannah Yeoh http://hannahyeoh.blogspot.com/

Election ceramah - unfazed by the rain

Saturday 8 March afternoon (Election Day)

When I pumped petrol at one of the Shell stations, even the Bangladeshi attendance said, “Good afternoon Sir, you vote already?” Well, that was an excellent ice-breaker used once in every four years.

When I went to service my car at one of the Goodyear outlets in USJ, the boss just came back from voting. When we struck a conversation, he automatically and excitedly made known his full support for the opposition parties.

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Source of photos: http://www.mycen.com.my/malaysia/election2008.html

The Lesser of the Shocking News:
Extracted from Wong Chun Wai’s column in today’s Star newspaper (Sunday 9 March, page N12):

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, the outgoing Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, the opposition leader.

By now, most results would have been known. With the rakyat’s endorsement, the waves of change have evolved into a tsunami. After discharging our duty to vote, we must continue to be vigilant, and ensure that our elected representatives account for their actions, and make good their promises on good governance – accountability, transparency and integrity.

Okay, election fever and euphoria is almost over, we shall return to running and trekking... :-)

Posted by KC