It was polling day, the 12th Election in Malaysia. I did not remember which election I started implementing my rights but I surely remember the year was 1969 and was in Port Dickson. The aftermath of that election was a disaster. Two days after the Kuala Lumpur fiasco on 15th May 1969 I experienced my first plane ride. I was on annual leave and the only way back home to Ipoh was a MAS Fokker Friendship flight from Melaka Airport to Ipoh with a stopover in Subang Airport. Pre flight, I stayed a night at Melaka Rest House and I was one of the only two residents then. It was scary both the room and the situation.
On 8th March 2008 of the 12th Election, I polled my vote at Kampong Raja Uda, Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan of Pandamaran constituency in the state of Selangor. It was a walking distance and yours truly took a stroll to the Polling Station. Being a senior citizen, this old man was allotted to Lane 1. My son who resides in Kuala Lumpur rushed back to cast his votes and had to rush back to KL for duty as he is attach to one of the TV Station. The election process in the country was smooth and peaceful with no serious untoward incidences. By midnight I should know the outcome and looking forward for the results. Pre election, the political campaigning was rather hot. Personally I think on this aspect the Prime Minister made a hiccup. He should wait for Dato Sri Anwar, once the Deputy Prime Minister to be eligible to participate in the General Election. Anwar being illegible to participate, he had all the time in the world to cris cross the country to campaign for the political Parties opposing the BN. If the prime Minister had waited, Anwar would be concentrating only at his own constituency and the repercussion would not be that severe. That’s my personal opinion.
In the evening I had to attend Nadia’s wedding (former staff daughter) at Dewan Perdana at Felda Complex in Kuala Lumpur. I was also invited to a wedding function at Merak Kayangan of the same complex but I told my friend, Yang Mulia Raja Rosdin that I might drop by later and after all I had attended the akad nikah ceremony. As soon as I parked my car at Dewan Perdana at about 1930 hours, I received a short message from my son that PAS had swept Kelantan however media was still holding. I told my friend Farid who is a Kelantanese and he confirmed with his folks back home that it was correct..correct…correct. (quoting: Lingam). We sat for the dinner but often interrupted by short messages from my son. Samy Vellu lost in his den, Sharizat defeated by Izzah (Anwar’s daughter), Koh Tzu Koon as well as Gerakan packed off and few prominent BN candidates. The biggest surprised, PR conquered five states and BN lost 2/3 majority in Parliament. My constituency of Pandamaran, once a stronghold for BN now swung to the safe hand of DAP. I was not really surprised. The late Zakaria Istana contributed to the handover and the total collapsed of Selangor under Khir Toyo regime. Honestly I did not concentrate on the dinner nor the bride and the bridegroom. Immediately after the function was over we rushed home. We decided not to cross over to Merak Kayangan. On the way home, my son alerted us to go home straight as he knew that there was a sign of commotion in Pandamaran.
Reaching home about midnight, I switched on the TV for news update. I only got results from the win of Barisan Nasional candidates. By 0300 hours all news bulletin from all TV stations on the election results went blank. All the news Broadcasters went to sleep and I was scrambling for updates from my contacts by short messages.
Only at the following afternoon when all high and dry, the nation realized that a political tsunami had just struck the day before. Some were jubilant and some hit the dust.
To this day, a year after, the aftermath still haunt BN Malaysians. BN still cannot accept the fact that the people had decided.
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