Dawn of a New Era : A Nation Reborn.

It was not a landslide victory, but it was certainly historic. The fact that the opposition had toppled a government in the dirtiest election is stunning.  Malaysians could not believe it. The Pakatan Harapan ( PH ) supporters can only hope and did not really think it could happened. The Barisan Nasional ( BN ) too did not think it would happened. They were confident that playing up race and religion while throwing money would safely keep them in power. The world was caught off guard as many had expected the ruling government to be returned to power. But happened it did and the stunning outcome had caught the world by surprised.

Since the last election, dubbed GE13 back in 2013, politics have been infiltrating the daily lives of  every normal Malaysians. It was no longer about opposition trying hard to find an issue with the government policies, but rather the highly corrupted government right from the very top was an issue that bothered the people and the opposition capitalised on it. The arrogance of the ruling government had pissed off the people in addition to the taxes they imposed to the struggling population. Those taxes imposed was used to cover part of the humongous debt that was build up through various leakages of massive fund that ended up in the private coffers of the Prime Minister.  The newly formed opposition group had successfully brought the case to the people that the ruling government is nothing but a thief and the only way out for the suffering Malaysians was to throw Barisan out. The campaign had reach fever pitch when the election date was announced. The writing was already on the wall if one were to follow the campaign trail. While the ruling party was campaigning to paid audiences and at times to empty halls, the opposition coalition campaign was receiving overwhelming response. All their venues mostly in open fields or streets were overflowing with crowds turning up in full force. One can say the advent of smart phones was instrumental in how things pan out. The daily news and happenings and messages by opposition party were transmitted through social media. Social platform like Facebook, Whats App, Viber or Twitter carried news instantaneously as things began happening on the ground. Whatever was not reported in the government controlled media was broadcasted here. This has certainly beaten the government biased reporting that came late or not at all. 

In the final week of campaign, there was noticeably a surge in crowds that attended the opposition rally. The picture below speaks for itself. The support for Pakatan Harapan was overwhelming.

The huge attendance at all Pakatan's rally was pooh poohed by the ruling government as photoshopped pictures and denial. BN's media interpret that high attendance does not necessarily translate to votes. Najib even stoke the racial element by saying most of those attended are non Malays in an attempt to hoodwink the Malays in his divide and rule strategy.

On 5th of May, 2018, my Facebook posting 5 years ago pop up. It was the date when I voted at the last election. I penned my thoughts on what I feel about the election when I shared the post on the same day. I was sure this time, there's going to be a change.

 My chat with my sisters who were all residing overseas where I told them on 6.5.18 of an impending change. They were excited yet concern.

8.5.18 - Final rally by PH before the dawning of a new era.

As in all elections, I will make it a point to attend some rallies to lend my support. And so, after attending some other earlier campaign that was held before nomination day, I with my wife and son, attended the final rally by PH that was held at  Padang Timur, PJ on the eve of election. As in all urban rallies, the people attending are not necessarily there to hear what the opposition have to say.  They already know all the issues and are there merely to lend their support and have a feel of the strong opposition atmosphere. 

The candidates from DAP, PKR, Amanah & PBS speaks under one unified logo of Keadilan.

 Yvonne and Valen at the rally.

 Wong Chen the first speaker.

New candidate, Lim Yi Wei is standing for Kampung Tunku, PJ.

 New candidate Michelle Ng is running for Subang Jaya state seat.

 Yvonne and I soaking in the atmosphere at Padang Timur.

 Bringing Valen along to let him have a feel of how a country conduct an election. 

 Shaharuddin is running for Seri Setia seat.

 New candidate Jamaliah Jamaluddin is standing for the Bandar Utama seat.

  Syamsul Firdaus is standing for Taman Medan, PJ

The Padang Timur venue like all others, was overflowing with PJ folks that came out in full force to lend support. All the candidates were no longer doing the fiery speech for it had become quite clear that the last day was more of toning down the rhetoric and getting everyone ready for the big day. As a matter of fact, most already have hoarse voices, some even lost their voice after two weeks of non stop intense campaigning. Moreover, this being the final day, every opposition throughout the country will stop their campaign by 10.00 am to allow Dr Mahathir, the opposition choice for Prime Minister to make a special announcement. That special announcement was broadcast live to all campaign venues and through the various media and channels in the internet. 

I had posted on my Facebook after coming back from the rally feeling very confident that this time, change will happen.

9.5.18 : Election Day.
Earlier, the government had intentionally held the election on Wednesday, a weekday with the hope of reducing turnouts from out of town and it being a working day. Those were mainly opposition supporters. It backfired when it  became clear that the people angered by this have expressed determination to make it home to vote come what may. Mahathir had declared that if opposition wins, Thursday and Friday would be a holiday. Under heavy criticisms and realising their ploy is not working, Najib backtracked and declared voting day a holiday. His big mouth deputy, Zahid Hamidi made their ill intention known by announcing those who have trouble getting leave from their employers, particularly those working in Singapore should not come back to vote! Such irresponsible statement coming from the No:2 in the country! The whole country reacted by rallying to provide free transportation from every corner of the country to enable more people to coming back and vote. These arrangements extend to those who works in Singapore. Some private transport companies openly announce their support by providing their services without charge. In addition, factories and some private enterprise openly announce a day off for those going back to vote. Zahid Hamidi had shot his own foot with his big mouth and the government strategy fell flat on their face.

My family work up early today feeling excited and ready to vote. My wife left at 8.00am to her voting center at Kepong with her mum and siblings. I took my two sons to their voting center at the Sr Damansara Primary school near our house. There was already a loooong queue when we arrived at 9.00am.

Both Sherman and Callum being first time voters, were looking forward to exercising their right.  They were in the queue for more than two hours before finally being able to cast their vote

My siblings were following the election via the family chat for that on the ground feel.

My siblings who were residing at the States were as excited come voting day.

I had to update them through Viber every step of the way.

The index finger of Malaysians are the most photographed and shared online on that day.

In the afternoon at about 2.30 pm, I went over to my voting center at Taman Megah with my brother. He had flew in from the China to cast his vote after missing out on it last election. This was our first voting center and have been so ever since.

The crowd is considerably less at this time of the day.

Most of the voters had voted first thing in the morning which was what we wanted to avoid, a long queue.

My brother and I waiting for our turn.

Our turn coming up next.

First step is to verify your name that matches with your ID.

Next is dipping his index finger into the indelible ink before collecting his ballot papers.

The big moment is here, selecting your candidates with a cross and putting the papers into the ballot box. The feeling is good after the vote is cast.
The entire process including queuing is all done within 30 minutes.

 My update to my siblings after casting our votes. Come evening, the whole country will be glued to their cell phones, computers or TV. Some stationed themselves at various party venues anxious for the results.

My thoughts are encapsulated in the above exchange.

How I went through the countdown hours are expressed in my exchange messages with my siblings from 8.30pm until midnight and onto the wee hours of the next morning. Exchanges were flowing almost non stop but below are some of the significant moments.

 The first significant scoop was at my hometown, Segamat. For the first time, BN lost that constituency. It signifies PH is gaining ground. Johor which had been BN's bastion since Independence is neck to neck by 8.40 pm.

 It was a see saw battle between BN and PH and then the results suddenly slowed down triggering some concern.

 An hour later, Negri State also fell to PH, another big moment. This was the State that blatantly prevent PH contestant from nominating that allow the sitting BN Chief Minister to win his seat uncontested. Instant Karma.  

 Explaining to my sis how a party can form the next government by "first pass the post" at 112 seats. .

 By 11.00pm, announcement have slowed down to snail pace, but you can feel something big is brewing.

 After checking on other channels and getting messages from other chat groups, the unofficial number indicates PH is definitely ahead of BN, but the announcement was not forthcoming.

At 11.30 pm, Mahathir came on live on opposition and various NGO and neutral blog including international news media to claim victory.

 Despite the announcement, the government media is still releasing the official version on a deliberately slow pace. At that moment, you can sense that, some manouvering is happening behind the scene.

 The most significant leak was the picture which was circulated in the social media which I posted as unoffcial tally to my sis.

This is the snap shot taken in the controlled room presumably monitored only by the Election Commission and the senior police force and kept away from public. It shows clearly the result was won by the opposition at 131 against BN at 85 seats! Although unofficial, that is a strong barometer as how the voting went. The top left hand corner shows the time as 10.20 pm ! This is an indicator that PH the opposition has triumphed by a convincing margin on an unofficial tally. It is certain that when BN knows that they are staring at defeat, they were buying time to hatch an insidious plot. Before the election they were so confident of winning that they had no Plan B. The delay in the announcement and many stalling activities like not signing the results, pictures of tanks are clear signs that the ruling government was trying to steal the election. On the other hand the opposition had anticipated every possible move by BN to cheat, including imposition of  martial law. The opposition had their supporters stood as vanguard and had many volunteers. They were trained on voting process and stood guard at every voting centers throughout the country armed with their handphone cameras. The entire day, during voting process and until the vote count, there were eyes everywhere. In addition, Mahathir had personally called on the Head of Police and Armed forces to uphold the lawful election process. News was that the Agong was out of the country and his Deputy the Perak Sultan had also called the law enforcers to ensure proper government transfers. These action had prevented any attempted forceful takeovers by the sore losers. Not that they were gracious in defeat, but their plans were thwarted every step of the way.

 But the counting and official results released continued at deliberate slow pace.

 At 2.45 am, they are still releasing the official numbers when the whole country have seen the unofficial count.

 Up to 3.00 am, the official results are still continues. In the previous election, the results were finalised by midnight. It was the same in every elections before that. The EC Chairman refused to sign off the results. Najib had not conceded defeat. 

There were strong viable rumours earlier on of tanks being seen at Putrajaya triggering fears of army taking control on the orders of Najib. It was the delaying tactic by the government that led to Mahathir going live earlier at 11.30 pm to claim victory. This cause the government to abandon any thoughts of seizing of government by force. Then after a long delay, Najib came on live and announce that there is a hung parliament. He announce that both sides had not won enough to form the government. He intentionally ignores the the vote count by PH partners in Sarawak and Sabah which is mischievous. He had wanted to set the stage for dirty lobbying of kingmakers in PH coalition partners to jump ship and he has all the stolen money to pay any amount just to retain control of the government.

 At long last, at 4.00 am, when announcement of the last official results finally ends, PH had officially won  and promptly declared Thursday and Friday a holiday as promised.. Whilst many rejoice over the win and look forward to savouring the extra days off, the real objective was in anticipation to prevent the ruling party from going back to the office and destroy any incriminating evidence of corruption. There was always that hope of an unlikely win which actually happened.

 When the battle was finally won, tiredness overcame me. In all elections, we never had the results this late!

 I posted the final tally to my siblings before hitting the sack.

The Parliament Seat shows PH winning 122 seats which was more than enough to form the government.

The various State Seat are as per above. Except for Kelantan, Trengganu, Perlis and Pahang, the rest of the States was won by PH. This position was slightly changed in the next few days due to some hopping as expected. It was the final tally as of 4.00 am on 10.9.18 when I went to bed.

 My siblings were just as excited and continued "yakking" away. It was afternoon for them.

 After a few hours of sleep, the first thing I checked was the news upon waking up at 10.00 am and the drama continues. This time, the palace is delaying the swearing in of Mahathir. It is a well known fact that the Palace have issues with Mahathir during his earlier reign as PM and is not keen to have him as PM again! The delay in swearing in is seen by the people as subverting the people's will and many are not going to take it lying down. The situation was very well explain by Art Harun who himself is a lawyer, an NGO and a strong critic of the corrupted BN government. See his explanation below.

 My sister who was based at Luxembourg at that time was all positive about the change.

 The congratulatory message from the US State Department was prompt.

 Jokes about the long delay came in fast and furious, and finally, Mahathir was sworn in late morning. Malaysians who voted for a change heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

 International journalist starts congregating in KL for the big story on Malaysia's election. It was big news for a country that never had a change of government. 

 And again, the jokes came out fast!

The declared holiday was timely as many stayed up late into the next morning watching how things unravel. Many had a chance to catch up with loss sleep and still had the long weekend to savour the sweet victory. I did not want to let this historic day go by without marking it with a celebration.

And so, a celebration was in order at our usual hangout place at Taman Tun Dr Ismail. The celebration was confined to all friends from Segamat.

 Me and the early birds, Siam Hwoi, Ballbeer, MG, Kay Hong and Brian. 

 David already in a celebratory mood with MG and Junior.

 Navam, David and I had a selfie.

 Andy and Sook Hiang having a toast.

 Only those with inked finger from our group is admitted!!!

 Sook Hiang having a catch up with Navam.

 It Pen and See Leong are "brothers" for a long time.

 A toast to PH victory.

 James, See Leong and Das feeling happy.

 Everyone voted and have reasons to celebrate.

 Cheers to Siam Hwoi and David.

 Tony Pua is our hero and is the MP in my consituency.

 He won by the biggest margin for a single seat at Damansara. He trounced his opponent by 107,000 votes. Tony secured 121,000 votes against BN 14,000 votes. He is the first MP  that brought the the IMDB case to Parliament a company used by the PM to pilfer the country coffers dry.

 There are always whiskeys to celebrate any occasion.

 Cheers to Brian and Kay Hong. 

 The celebration atmosphere is very relaxed and jovial.

 Ong Beng Lam came later but got into the grove in no time.

Even the pub singer joined us for a while. He is also from our hometown of Segamat.

Finally, a deserving portrait on how we celebrated the dawning of a new era.

GE14 Win : A Prophecy

At the run up to election, the the social media were abuzz with the circulation that Philippine had a change of government on May 9, 2016.

 Rodrigo Dutarte came into power on that date.

A year later on May 9, 2017, South Korea too had a change of government.

 Moon Jae In came into power on that same date.

And so when Malaysia announced its election date to be on May 9, 2018, PH supporters were sure there has to be a parallel with the neighbouring countries. And true enough, on that fateful day, PH overthrown a government that had not been changed for 61 years. 

 Was it written in the stars? 

The Chinese Calender below that had been in used for more than two thousand years was even more prophetic.

Literally translated, it says it is a good date. It's a day "mountain change". In the olden days, it could be deciphered as a day where dynasty, emperor or ruler can change.  I guess, we could used this to say that it is a good day to change the government. And change we did. Three South East Asian government was changed in three successive years, and it all happened on the same date; 9th of May.

In the same week when PH took over as government, the massive scale of corruption by the previous government under Najib began to unravel. Police started raiding Najib's houses and Malaysians and the world were dumbfounded with what they are seeing.  Images of  police carting out loads of jewellery, watches, cash in local foreign currencies and luxury handbags from the many residences of the ex Prime Minister. Everyone knows about the luxurious lifestyle of the Najib and Rosmah and their penchant for expensive things that are bought with stolen money, but to see such sheer volume flowing out from the private residences is obscene!

Police raiding Najib's residence at The Pavilion.

 Bags containg jewellery and cash being carted out.

 Bags presumably designer handbags were seen being trolleyed to the police truck

 There were few hundred of those orange boxes containing luxury handbags.

Some boxes contain luxury expensive watches.

 Sample of jewelleries in photos taken by the police.

 More jewellery.

This private collection can put any jewellery store to shame.

 That's the total in terms of market value after weeks of counting.

The police giving a press statement.

The above are raid on just one of the 6 residences in KL. After weeks of counting, the total value of valuables seized as reported by the police to be RM686.37 million but having a market value of up to RM1.1 Billion ! A quick summary released by the policed are as follows :

1. Cash totalling RM 116.7 million in 26 currencies.

2. 25 bags containing 12,000 jewellery items worth RM440 million

3. 567 handbags were counted, from which 267 of those cost RM51.3 million of brands like           Hermes, Chanel and Bijan among the 70 other brands.

4. 6 Bags containing 423 watches worth RM78 million including Rolex, Chopard and Richard Mille.

5. 234 pairs of sunglasses worth RM374,000 including brands like Versace, Dior and Gucci.

Lim Guan Eng was appointed Finance Minister and his Ministry had reported that government is bearing the debt of 1MDB to a tune of RM1 trillion. More dirt were unearth and among those massive ones were debt pile up by Pembinaan PFI to the tune of RM27 Billion. Then there was the input tax that was not returned to the tax payer collected from GST. These totaled to RM16 Billion and have not been kept in the trust account but declared as tax revenue and amount utilised. These are but a few massive ones initially uncovered and there are many others, too many to be mentioned here.

The above are what the new PH government have to grapple with which was concealed from public knowledge by Najib's administration. There were still much more corruption at various level committed by the many cronies of Najib that are yet to be uncovered. These beneficiaries form the hardcore supporters of Najib and have been hoodwinking the Malay population that their religion and race is under threat by communist Chinese who are pendatang to the country!  While many Malays are smarter than to believe that, yet the many less enlightened amongst them fall for it hook line and sinker. 

This dangerous game had set us on the slippery road to anarchy like the many African countries. Had the previous government won the election, it is a certainty that our country would have slipped into a worse scenario than that and become a downtrodden country step upon by the world. Thank god the there was a "mountain change" and we can say for now, the rot stops. However, it may take a decade or more to extricate ourselves out of the debt hole created by Najib. We hope ultimately justice is served when the expected long court case against Najib finds him guilty of all counts of corruption.

Today is Merdeka Day when Malaysia achieve Independance 61 years ago. We hope today is the day a new Nation is truly reborn and move towards the ideal, ie a harmonious country of different race and religion achieving prosperity together through a meritocracy policy.