It's Been A Crazy Yet Amazing Past Few Days Over Here

I don't know really know how to start this, other than if you're a big fan of obscure foreign elections, then this is something you might wanna read to the end. I'll be adding a bit of pictures and videos, and also some Wikipedia links if you wanna get a better situational idea of the stuff that had happened over here.

So, as many of you might know, I hail from the country of Malaysia. Lovely place: always summer, durian haven, has the best cuisine in the world thus far and nobody can tell me otherwise. We usually pop into the global newsfeed from time to time, whether it be missing planes, corruption scandals, or when some moronic 'expert' on Masterchef UK decides how our local food should be. No, the rendang is, in no way, crispy, you turd.

Chicken Rendang, in its natural state.
alternative title: God's Gift To This Mortal Earth

We're really passionate about our food here.

Anyways, we had a general election this year. Looking back to the weeks leading up to the voting booth, it had been the tightest race in the country's history thus far, with a mishmash of parties, coalitions and political figureheads involved that I could never really sort out for the life of me. Despite that, I'm certain that I know enough to throw out a blog post for the smallest corner of the world to see, and I also know enough to say this with utmost confidence:

In all my life, I had never been this excited about what the future could bring.

So, a bit — a lot actually — of context.

Throughout its 61 years of existence, the Malaysian government was always under the rule of the National Front, known locally as Barisan Nasional, or BN, for short. BN itself is a coalition comprising of a number of parties, with the three main ones being UMNO (United Malays National Organisation), MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) and MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress). You may notice, from the names of those factions alone, that in every election, there's a single issue / talking point they would use to push their agenda.

Race has always been a thing in Malaysian elections. With race also comes another major issue which can easily be mistaken for one another in this country: religion. Deep down, anyone Malaysian would know how deep does the wounds inflicted by religious tensions and racial biases go. Nevertheless, we're taught to be tolerant about each other's cultures, religions and traditions, and most of us take that lesson to heart, which is why we don't have any KKKs or whatsoever springing up around here. Most people here don't like to get into trouble anyway, and usually when someone does so unintentionally, you'd always see a beautiful sight of their fellow countrymen coming together to help them out. It's a really Malaysian thing and I'm proud of that.

For the longest time, I believe that BN had been working in spirit of the people. They had always put themselves forward as the party of the people and it is especially true with the earlier prime ministers. Recently, however, within the reign of the sixth prime minister Najib Tun Razak (Najib, or Jib, as we would call him here), there had been a great many scandals, cover-ups and shadowy acts happening underneath his watch, chief among them being the 1MDB scandal. To be funneling taxpayer money from a government enterprise of your own making into your own pocket was shocking enough. To do so openly and brashly without shame? That's pretty much how bad it was over here.

As such, there had been growing calls for a change in our leadership, exemplified quite spectacularly and stunningly with the Bersih rallies. Basically, Bersih is an organization demanding for a clean (thus, bersih) and fair election, and also for a reformation of the country's governance. This was already happening even during the rule of Najib's predecessor, so it just goes to show how discontent we had become.

Some photos and videos of the most recent rally below back in 19th November of 2016. Yellow represents fairness as per the symbolic meaning of the colors in our flag, which is why participants were all wearing yellow.

This demonstration also took place in other countries as well, so you might've spotted them by accident when it happened.

With how prevalent and blatant the corruption had been, it's no surprise that there was a strong and vocal opposition coalition formed to contest against the ruling party. They've gone through many changes through past elections, with a lot of splintering and infighting, as all political parties do, but the iteration for this election is known as Pakatan Harapan (PH), which translates to the Alliance of Hope. Funnily enough, the prime minister-designate chosen by this party should it win the election was a man known as Mahathir, or Dr. M, as many heartily called him. He was actually the fourth Prime Minister underneath BN and had led the country for 22 years, the longest among all his counterparts. He was also Najib's tutor, which complicates things a little more. It was under him that the biggest economic booms occurred in Malaysia, albeit with some expenses made that are still controversial to this day. Nevertheless, because of some complicated political reasons, as well as his age, he will only be serving in the office for half a term (2.5 years) before being replaced by Anwar Ibrahim, the original founder of the Opposition coalition who had been jailed back in the 90s by — this should be a TV show — him, should they follow the party's promises.

Yeah, it's complicated.

These two factions clashed on the 9th of May — Election Day — and the results couldn't come slower enough. As always, the elections were fraught with really suspicious events, with blackouts happening at some vote count stations, officials refusing to sign the results off as per standard procedure once the votes were finished, even police cars bringing in fake ballot boxes into voting stations.

Links to everything scandalous that happened below, most with photos and videos of the incidents as recorded on the scene:

Man Stashing Fake Ballot Boxes
Phantom Voters
Officials Unwilling To Declare Party Winners
The Prime Minister Himself Breaking The Voting Rules

Yeah, this really is the reason why we've had five Bersih rallies throughout the past decade.

Nevertheless, the election results were announced. At a really sensible 4AM in the morning.

At least public holidays were announced.

In the end, even with all the attempts of sabotage in the election process, PH had won. For the first time in 61 years, the government will finally, finally change to another political party.

Naturally, people celebrated.

On the night itself, even before the official announcement of the results

And earlier (as of this post), when Dr. M was on the way to being sworn in as the new Prime Minister

A summary

Personally, I've never been this excited. Like many, I thought that the election, once again, will see the ruling party win, so to see such a grand change of scenery was exhilarating. This was a historic moment for us Malaysians, and for me, so much so that I'm willing to share it with a bunch of strangers who might just skim over this on a pony website in some random corner of the Internet.

I think if there's a lesson in any of this, it's that yes, voting really does matter. I didn't do it this time because of a late registration (and I'm really, really beating myself into the table right now!) but if anything, it goes to show that the democratic process, although flawed, still works as intended. This was a proud moment for Malaysia and a shining example set for the rest of the world to emulate, and it makes me happy, honored and humbled to know that I lived through this moment, and that I've seen every second of everything unfold down to the last second. There will be challenges ahead, and we'll be keeping an eye out for this incoming government to deliver the promises they made, but right now, if nothing else, the future looks bright.

Here's to the next five years!