THE BACK DOOR LEFT WIDE OPEN

Hantu Laut

Keeping awake until the wee hours of the morning trying to make sense of the snail pace announcement of the election results over television and radio was nerve racking and made me rather cheesed-off at the stupidity of the Election Commission and government run media for trying to delay the delivery of the good news to the people and bad news to their bosses.

In the initial hours, I depended on phone calls to various friends in the inner circle of politics who gave me multifarious version of the results, some of which were figment of their imagination.

Malaysiakini, the not so government friendly internet news portal and deemed to be more reliable was slow in their updates.By about midnight my connection to Malaysiankini has gone kaput, either due to overloaded bandwidth or those goons at the ISP were told to bar the transmission. It was the same with Malaysia Today. It has disappeared from the world wide web.However, by about midnight I have got an inkling of where the BN was heading for.

The people have woken up.The electorates from the Klang Valley and to most of the northern states in Peninsula sent a serious message through the ballot boxes that inflicted a serious dent in the BN's armour. Its impregnable fortress is now shattered in humongous humility.

Not getting two-thirds majority is, as the Hakka Chinese in Sabah say "sap sap soi" (it's a small matter). The greatest humiliation was the loss of the five states to the oppositions. They haven't envisioned this at all.The oppositions have walked in through the back door while they were busy guarding the front door. They were more concerned about not losing the two-thirds majority and have completely forgotten the vulnerability of the states.

Some of its components lay in ruins and one was completely decimated.There were many factors that led to the massive swing to the oppositions. First and foremost was greed. Internal bickering and sabotage also played a wicked role.

Although Penang was expected to go to the oppositions particularly DAP, the loss would not have been that massive. The crushing blow in Penang was much due to Abdullah's refusal to name the Gerakan candidate who would take over from Koh Tsu Koon as chief minister. The Chinese community already disgruntled and unhappy by the poor treatment they getting from the government viewed Abdullah's silence as a ploy to give the chief minister post to UMNO, which they have tried to get before under Mahathir's tenure.The former prime minister warned UMNO, it's a no go zone and to lay off.

The other state that could have a Chinese menteri besar is Perak where DAP has captured the most state seats.It secured 18 seats, PKR 7 and PAS 6. The state constitution of Perak stipulated that the menteri besar must be a Malay and of the Islamic faith but the Sultan can waived this condition if he thinks it is expedient to do so.

If the rules of democratic process were to be used by convention than the MB position should be given to DAP. It would be a mockery of the parliamentary system if the position goes to PAS or PKR. The Malays have thrown their support behind the coalition of oppositions, it's time they bite the bullet and set aside this unfair system.

Perak has a high Chinese population and Chinese cultural practices and lifestyle are conspicuous throughout the state, a PAS styled regime would be untenable.

PAS has issued a warning that all new states they have captured will come under the same PAS styled rules. Kelantan can't be used as a barometer for other states. Each state is unique and should be treated differently. Kedah has a better chance of accepting PAS styled rule. It would be up to the Sultan of Perak to decide the most acceptable formula for his state.

The massive swing to the oppositions were the results of good work of propagandists, one of which is the accusation of phantom voters and tainted electoral rolls. The results has shown that there is little truth in its widespread and wholesale existence.

Now that the die is cast, let us wait and see where democracy would take us with greater dissenting voices in Parliament.