The result was indeed an anti-climax, but those who had longed for change can take solace in the fact that they had fought an honourable battle against all odds.

In terms of the popular vote, the rakyat has won. For the first time in history, an opposition alliance has garnered more votes than the ruling coalition, a splendid achievement against the background of rampant bribery, media manipulation and, more importantly, gerrymandering. The electoral playing ground is just too skewed for Barisan Nasional’s victory to be meaningful.

azlanWhile BN managed to retake Kedah from PAS, no thanks to former menteri besar Azizan Abdul Razak, Pakatan Rakyat has made significant inroads in Terengganu, Perak and even Johor. For all his cocky talk of recapturing Selangor, Najib Abdul Razak failed miserably as Pakatan held the richest state with an increased seat majority.

All this, coupled with the fact that BN has won fewer parliamentary seats than in 2008, is bad enough for Najib, especially when he had led a presidential-style campaign. The pyrrhic victory is now the reason why other Umno bigwigs, urged on by Mahathir Mohamad, are sharpening their knives.

It is very clear that Pakatan has won the hearts and minds of the urban voters, the only irony being that the massive support - often with majorities in the tens of thousands - only reflects how deeply flawed our electoral system is.

For instance, Teresa Kok of DAP won in Seputeh with an unassailable majority of nearly 60,000; other Pakatan MPs such as Sivarasa Rasiah, Charles Santiago, Manivannan Gowindasamy, Siti Mariah Mahmud, Ong Kian Ming, Gobind Singh Deo, Tan Seng Giaw, Tony Pua and Wong Chen also enjoy a majority of over 20,000.

In the Klang Valley, many of the parliamentary constituencies have registered voters between 60,000 to 120,000, and these are the areas where Pakatan has successfully established as strongholds.

However, the average number of registered voters is only around 30,000 per constituency in Sarawak, and this is the case in many of the rural seats. Imagine if there were more constituencies in the Klang Valley, Penang and other urban centres, BN would have lost.

Hence, GE13 represents a clear pattern of rural-urban divide rather than a Chinese tsunami. Forgive Najib for being livid. Despite having dumped in so much money and resources over the past four years - to the tune of RM57.7 billion according to Bridget Welsh - he just did not manage to improve on Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s performance.

Moreover, Najib had done everything possible to please the Chinese community, including putting on Chinese suits, playing the Chinese drum and even sending his pampered son to the heavily polluted city of Beijing to learn some basic Mandarin, but still failed to win the crucial vote.

Prepare for more racist rhetoric
Najib’s anger is understandable, albeit ungentlemanly. Knowing that his position within Umno has become untenable, he can no longer keep up the masquerade. The 1Malaysia parody is effectively over while the next battle has just begun. Since Umno is rejected by much of the electorate, both Najib and Muhyiddin Yassin must do their utmost to shore up support within the extreme and conservative camp for survival.

In other words, they both have to out-Malay each other to stay ahead. The ‘Apa lagi orang Cina mahu?’ headline by Utusan Malaysia early this week has already set the tone for probably the most hotly-contested party elections later this year. Now that Najib’s mask as ‘the man we can do business with’ is taken off, we must be prepared for more racist rhetoric in the months to come, and forget not Mahathir who is quietly watching and pulling the strings from behind.
It is hence vitally important that Pakatan leaders keep calm and united, lest they be weakened by Umno’s devious attempt to create cracks among them.

NONEThankfully, the rakyat did not stand idly by. They quickly rallied behind the country by turning up for one of the biggest protests since 1998. The amazing turnout and the bittersweet atmosphere are signs of the people’s wrath and despair at a government that remains arrogant and vengeful despite that they have won through cheating.

Najib and Mahathir are both paying for their blunder and caustic remarks. Instead of accepting gracefully that their ‘victory’ is not complete, they went on to enrage a large part of the population by blaming the Chinese, Pakatan and non-Umno Malays. In doing so, they have ended up with more enemies and alienating more people.

What next? DAP must kill off any idea of joining BN. In this, Gerakan serves as a timely reminder. The left-leaning, idealist party chose to dance with the devil in 1973 out of a climate of fear and uncertainty, only to become emasculated and corrupt like others.

If DAP leaders are so short-sighted as to do just that, they will go down in history alongside Lim Keng Yaik, Koh Tsu Koon, Teng Chang Yeow and, for that matter, the entire MCA. Lim Kit Siang’s resounding win over Abdul Ghani Othman in Gelang Patah, too, would turn to dust.

The same goes for PAS. It is worrying that most of the liberal faces of the Islamic party, Dzulkefly Ahmad, Mat Sabu, Salahuddin Ayub and Husam Musa - have lost their parliamentary seats, which can be partly attributed to Umno using the mainstream media to frighten the electorates with innuendoes of their being ‘pro-non Muslims’.

Traumatic experience in the 1970s
Which direction PAS will take in the next few years must be closely watched. But the party must not forget the traumatic experience of being dominated by Umno when they were together in the 1970s. PAS went on to lose Kelantan in 1978 and the party descended into disarray thereafter. It did not recover until the 1990s. I trust Hadi Awang would not want to be remembered as yet another Mohd Asri Muda in the party’s history.

The biggest concern is no doubt PKR, which has always been the weakest link in Pakatan. While Azmin Ali has vowed to remain in the opposition camp, his deep resentment of not getting the top post as Selangor menteri besar can be a source of conflict in the future.

In any case, the Wednesday rally shows that the rakyat want change and are ready to take up bigger challenges ahead. We are out but not down , while Malaysian civil society has grown by leaps and bounds. The country has come thus far and there is no turning back. The next battle will be in the rural areas and this is where BN’s rule will be buried. The hard work starts now.


JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.