And the voice roared!

Hidup Malaysia!

Momentous times these are - no single party has the two-thirds majority in Parliament to amend the Constitution at will, for the first time in the history of the country. Of course, that statement discounts 1969, in which that did happen in terms of votes but it was not realised in terms of reality (Wikipedia has an entry on what happened, but like any other information about that time its accuracy is questionable). It's also the first time that so many states will be run by Opposition state governments.

Look at the map above: the north are not pleased (with the single exception of Perlis). To my current understanding, Penang will be run by DAP, Kelantan by PAS, Kedah by both PKR and PAS, Perak by all 3 and Selangor by PKR and DAP. Talk about opportunities for experimentation - we are going to have very interesting times in Malaysia indeed.

Check out Malaysiakini (Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Mirror 3) for further information as it comes in.


8 things the Opposition now have to do:

a. NOT throw a massive celebration party. Treat yourselves to a good teh tarik (so you know how much it should cost and stay), have a good laugh and get on with it.

b. Thank the people. You're welcome.

c. Form a true and viable Alternative Coalition. Make it a clear party, with a vision, a real stand on things and goals that it wants to achieve. They need to set systems as to how to make decisions and who does what.

d. Get together and seriously plan the next 4/5 years on what to do. Make firm decisions on very important issues, try and decide on the not-so-important ones.

e. Form a Shadow Government. Shadow PM, shadow Finance Minister, shadow Whatever. Play pretend. In fact, maintain a blog for every position on what you would do and your opinion as shadow Whatever - best case, you become Whatever because you're so good and the people have to vote you in, or at worst your good ideas get stolen by the current Whatever. So what? Betterment of the country, neh. Ain't that why you're running for Whatever?

f. Publish an Alternative Coalition (or Opposition) newspaper. I'm not joking. Get the best editor, best writers, best brains for the various fields; and make it the best damn paper in the country. Make sure it does report news, and not function as a government-bashing paper. Put up the blogs of the Shadow Government (above). And when it comes to the last quarter of its expected lifetime, send it online. If it's that good, the people will complain loudly and this new government may have to listen - otherwise, online's where it's at.

[Note on "expected lifetime": Malaysia has a Publishing Act of some sort where the licence to print a newspaper or any other publication has to be granted by the government, and this licence lasts ONE YEAR. So yes, if the government doesn't like it, it doesn't last past that year. And yes, it explains why our papers are so hopelessly biased. And why our magazines are quite intellectual-content free.]

g. Make sure all their States do good.

h. Do a damned good job.