… and decides to fastrack it’s progress to genuine democracy. I am cautiously optimistic that this will be the last election where the BN holds on to federal government. They can’t recover from this. The opposition holds a virtual monopoly in parliament in terms of credibility, legitimacy, and ideas – and this will easily be apparent to the voters.
But in the mean time, those of us in the opposition movement have to come to terms with the fact that this vote is NONE of the following:
- it is not a vote for Islamic State
- it is not a vote for Malaysian Malaysia
- it is not a vote for turun harga miyak esok
It is simply a vote for change, but the exact nature of the change is a matter for lively debate. However, the lively-ness of the debate for now should be timid, as the main priority should be the creation of the idea that business will go as usual while the changes needed are pursued in a thoughtful and careful manner. The PPPA and UUCA should be brought up and placed on the chopping block soon. Also, the electoral laws must urgently be sorted out. Other than that, ISA etc we should move more carefully to ensure that the existing laws are capable of adequately prosecuting cases such as money counterfeiting.
In any case, the message is clear… we’re on to something.
Syabas Malaysia.
This blog is now closed again.
[...] case, where the rakyat voted for the message of “deny BN 2/3rds majority”, but as I said immediately in the aftermath of the tsunami: it wasn’t a vote for Islamic State, it wasn’t a vote for Malaysian Malaysia, and it [...]