2018; Year of the Rakyat

KUALA LUMPUR, 31 Dec – With 2019 lurking around the corner and that corner being merely few hours away, restaurants are filled with Malaysians having big dinner with friends and family and somewhat feel a bit different than any new year eve celebration before. Tomorrow is New Year but 2018 seem a year so special, I want it to last forever.

History will mark 2018 as a year of change. A year Malaysia changed its government of 61 years. A year Malaysians decided enough is enough where the Rakyat kicked out Barisan Nasional from federal government for the first time in history, and it all happened peacefully via a democratic process.

May 9 will go down in history as the day Malaysians showed their politicians who is the real boss. Malaysians showed them that governments can be changed. That politicians can no longer do as they like without repercussion.

The fallout of May 9 is not only limited to changing the administrators of the country but more than that, it showed that those holding power are not above the law. That their disregard for the law can bite them back when the Rakyat decide to change the government.

While many will argue that not much has changed since, such argument should only hold true temporarily. When dirty politicians are brought to justice and be made example of, current and future politicians will have to rethink whether they should be indulging in corruption. That should slowly result in cleaner government.

Most importantly and even if the new government were to repeat the mistakes of the previous one, Malaysians now know how to kick out a sitting government.

What we did in 2018 should always be remembered forever as the year we took the power back from the government. The year we reinstalled democracy in the country.

I wrote this on my Facebook days before the GE14 and I’d like you all to have a read again and reflect on the victory that will forever belong to us, Malaysians:

“Return the power to the people!

Whether you support BN, PH or GS (Gagasan Sejahtera which are made up of PAS, Berjasa and Ikatan), you’re the people of Malaysia. That is a fact.

For 60 years Malaysians have given their powers to BN. It has been a monopoly, and it’s even fair to say that within that monopoly, there had been traces of tyranny by the majority. Whether it was by design or not, intended or not, what matter is that the minority felt it. And the majority had not benefitted much anyway. Majority are still at the bottom of the economic scale.

Whether it was Rahman, Razak, Hussein, Mahathir, Badawi or Najib, it was all under BN. The people, us, had been reduced to powerless people. Even when the majority decided to kick out BN, they still held on to power in GE13. I won’t dwell much on popular votes because we all know that has never been a factor to win an election in Malaysia.

My problem with that however, is that despite us, the people telling BN that we want them out in the last GE, they completely ignored us. We look at PAP in Singapore, the people spoke against them and they buck-up, listened to the people, and then they got the mandate again. But the mandate was given after they gave assurances which were followed by actions.

Now, compare that with BN?

We told them more than half of the voters wanted them out. How did they react? Instead of listening to us, they devised plans to stay in power, by using methods not to win our mandate but to go around us and win via dubious workarounds. The redelineation based on race, deregistering of political party, sudden changes in election regulations, rejection of opposition candidacy, changes in postal voting (proven by cases today where many are posting Fedex messages that their postal ballot paper is only due to arrive on 8 or 9 May), cutting out faces from opposition posters, making Petronas Twin Towers disappear in their own manifesto booklet??

Erasing history

Seriously? You think you can erase Mahathir’s achievements by erasing the Twin Towers from a photo? Even the shadows of the towers remain in the photo, you joke! Oh, I was just there jogging this morning, it was still there! Huge as ever! You think it’s an insult to Mahathir? It’s not! It’s insulting us! Insulting our intelligence! You’re really really saying we are idiots! I mean we had been voting you in for 60 years so yeah we are the idiots but you don’t have to rub it in our faces like that!

But since you did, it showed clearly, that you have no respect whatsoever to the people of this nation. You’re insulting us by going around us to win this election by rearranging the 40 percenters that would vote for you. As if we don’t exist? How dare you? Now you’ve also said you “sudah insaf” and for us to give the mandate again for you to fix things. Perhaps we would have but we’ve seen a bit too much disrespect to reconsider you.

So this GE14, if you’re a Malaysian, I hope we all rally up to kick BN out. And there’s only one choice for that to happen. One! The only alternative that can kick out BN is Harapan. If you want to support PAS, continue supporting them, no problem, but this GE14, vote for Harapan. You know damn well PAS doesn’t have enough influence to win. Definitely not in Sabah and Sarawak. Voting PAS will only split the vote and give the win to BN. Don’t listen to RPK.

If you’re a loyal member of BN, it’s ok. Keep your loyalty but unite with all Malaysians and teach your leaders a lesson. They have been taking you for granted. Give them a lesson of losing. They will bounce back stronger for you, and most importantly for your children. Vote against them, this once. Make them the strongest opposition force Malaysia has ever seen.

If you’re a Pakatan supporter but thinking of teaching Pakatan a lesson, hold on. Teach them by using other ways. This election is not about anything else but taking back power from BN. By the people, back to the people. Vote Harapan, it’s the only way for BN to lose.

#UndiRosak?

If you’re thinking of spoiling your votes, think again. You’re angry, you want to make a statement? I don’t disagree but do it another time. The real way to show that we, the people of Malaysia, are the ones that hold the power is by making an example to BN.

That we can vote them in, and if they don’t work for us, WE CAN KICK THEM OUT!

We do that to BN, we automatically tell Harapan the same message. We are installing PH as caretaker of this country but you work for us, the people! You don’t become Yang Berhormat, you become Yang Berkhidmat! Never the other way around.

It’s about us

You hate Mahathir? You hate Anwar? It’s ok. It’s not about them. It’s about us, the people. It’s time we unite. We tell those two “look, we reinstall you, but if you screw up somehow, we have the power to uninstall you! We just did it to BN, you want the same treatment?”

You say they were corrupt too? None of them got caught with money in their own personal bank account! If true they were corrupt, where’s the proof? BN has enough time to show proofs but they haven’t. If still true that they were indeed corrupt, they never did it blatantly in your face, in my personal account kind of way! BN are now practicing corruption without even trying to hide it. Why? Because they know, we are powerless to do anything about it. They don’t hide anymore. This is why we need to retake the power! So we can send a message, that we shouldn’t be taken for granted ever again!

Plus, I’ll give you a bonus too. You don’t only kick out BN, you don’t only install a new government, but you install the strongest opposition coalition ever, in BN!

What will all of that do to this country? We will have the best check and balance system installed for the first time ever!

Don’t listen to fear-mongering about riots, about famine, about economy going bad. It’s already bad. The worst that can happen to us is to be ruled by fear. Don’t let them. Enough is enough!

Vote Harapan! Vote for change! Vote to take back power from BN! Vote to give back power to the people!

POWER TO MALAYSIANS!”

Perhaps I was wrong about BN being the strongest ever opposition but nevertheless, I am thankful we did what we did.

Thank you Malaysia for 2018! Happy New Year 2019, Malaysia!

-Mujahidin Zulkiffli, MD, NMT