People power creates history

> Malaysians exercise their voting rights to end 60 years of BN rule

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians have made a reality what was previously thought as impossible on Wednesday.

Declaring that they are proud to be part of history in the making, they boldly exercised their rights at the ballot box, which resulted in Barisan Nasional’s (BN) heavy defeat with only 79 seats despite a lower turnout of 76% and a strong attempt by PAS to split votes.

While PAS’s gambit failed to materialise, the Islamic party still had something to boast about with the recapturing of Terengganu, while retaining Kelantan and the possibility of forming a coalition government in Kedah and Perak.

Where did it go wrong for BN? It was a severe beating in Johor, where the previous cabinet ministers were literally decimated, and once and for all dismissing the common notion that the state would be their fortress.

Former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s return to active politics proved to be an unstoppable juggernaut as all races seemed united in voting out BN.

The resounding victories for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in Selangor and Penang saw BN and PAS having a combined total of only eight state seats – BN (six) and PAS (two) – in both states.

For the first time, PH’s unprecedented victory also extends to Malacca and Negri Sembilan.

What was pivotal, however, was the turnaround by Sabah and Sarawak.

Often dubbed as BN’s “fixed deposits”, the people’s mandate there saw DAP, PKR, Warisan and independents pull off the greatest coup in the country’s history.

Sarawak saw 11 out of its 31 parliamentary seats fall to either DAP, PKR and independents following a massive shift of votes among the Dayak and Bidayuh community.

A source who works for a stategovernment agency said while Sarawak voters remain parochial in their approach towards voting, the latest results were due to the state government’s poor handling of the (2,028,722 votes) (4,078,928 votes) (5,795,954 votes) native and customary land issues that has been plaguing the state for many years.

The source said the increase in the number of young voters in Sarawak partly explained the shift in voting patterns.

Sabah, on the other hand, saw the wave of change brought by Warisan’s Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal almost engulfing the state. The Warisan-DAP-PKR coalition won 29 state seats and could form the state government pending changes in the allegiance of United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut party (Upko) and independent Sabah STAR party.

All said and done, the message is clear, the world’s longest democratically elected coalition is no longer the federal government of the day.