Today has been one of those rare occasions where I feel extremely inspired! As my sister would put it – one of those “I have a dream” moments. If you’re Malaysian, you probably already know what I am on about – and if you’re not, well I’ll tell you.

 Yesterday Malaysia saw the dawn of a new era – for the first time since the country’s independance in 1957, Malaysia’s rulling party, Barisan Nasional, no longer has a 2/3rd majority in parliament. Barisan Nasional (BN) is a coalition of 3 racially-based political parties : UMNO (representing Malays), MCA ( representing Chinese) and MIC (representing Indians).

While the country has, undoubtedly, benefitted much from this coalition – there have been certain issues that the government seems to have consistently neglected to address, in particular corruption, racial discrimination and increasing crime rates.  

I know many Malaysians do blame Abdullah Badawi (Malaysia’s PM) or Pak Lah as us Malaysians call him, for the rise in crime and corruption – but honestly, I think Pak Lah has been a really good PM. Of course, who am I to judge – when I’ve only seen 2 PMs in power during my entire lifetime! But even so, I personally think that Pak Lah did make the government more transparent – although little was done to curb the apparent corruption. I also think, under Pak Lah, the rakyat (the people) were given more freedom of speech – to voice out their opinions, in public, without having to worry what the consequences were. I still remember even in secondary school – it was such a taboo thing to speak about the racism in the country - it was like an unspoken rule.

 And now – as the HINDRAF has evidently shown, it is alright to protest publicly against racial discrimination! (HINDRAF was a protest by about 10 000 Indians who claimed that the government was doing little to represent the minority Indians in Malaysia.) It is no surprise that Samy Vellu, president of MIC and Minister of Works has lost his seat in parliament. Honestly, after the whole HINDRAF incident – and the cumulative criticism of his work (or rather, lack of it) – I’m actually surprised he didn’t see it coming.

Among the other big names that lost their seats in yesterday’s elections were Minister for Women Datuk Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and Penang’s ex-Chief Minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon. It is surprising that long-time minister Shahrizat lost to Anwar Ibrahim’s 27-year-old daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar – not only because Shahrizat has played such an immense role in Malaysian politics, but also because Anwar Ibrahim’s party, PKR, managed to only claim 1 seat in the last elections in 2004. 

So the opposition has won about 38% of the parliament seats – a huge contrast to BN’s landslide victory in 2004. (BN won about 92% of the parliament seats in the last elections.) This is indeed revolutionary, and I can only explain this with the 700 000 newly registered voters for this year. I guess Malaysians have become less apathetic, and it is exciting and inspiring the kind of change we can make when we actually try!

I remember having a conversation with a fellow Malaysian 2 years ago. He also is studying in the UK – and had confided in me that it is unlikely that he will return to Malaysia. Upon inquiring why, he explained that “There are so many things that are not right with the government.”

At this point, I went into my usual defensive-Malaysian mode and claimed that he was a prototype Malaysian problem. Apathetic. Instead of trying to make a difference, we turn our back on our nation. And that is inded a huge problem Malaysia faces. The people who can make a difference choose not to, and the people who cannot suffer. I know, somewhere along the conversation I also mentioned that change will take time, and it might take even 10 years – but if nobody steps up to doing something, the country will only degrade further.

And now, when I think of that summer night, it seems almost surreal. Two years ago – and any change seemed so distant. And today, change is at our doorstep.

It will be interesting to know who the new government will comprise. I hope that this change will indeed be significant – and not just a false hope for something better.