PRU15: Godspeed, YAB Anwar Ibrahim

Finally, having consulted the Malay Rulers, HM King consented and invited Anwar Ibrahim to form government.

It's been an emotional time for a lot of PH supporters. The three decades wait to see Anwar become PM was over.

As for myself who was in kindergarten when the Reformasi movement swept the country and never was a big fan of Anwar, it still felt surreal to see him becoming PM. For decades, we've heard of how great a PM he would make and his failure each time to realise it just became fodder for slight remarks and jokes from all Malaysians who were as invested in seeing if he's ever gonna make it that when he finally did, it felt like our lifelong dream had come true.

Even this time, it didn't look likely for Anwar to become PM since his coalition didn't get the commanding majority in the Dewan. But perhaps with a robust and well laid out strategy, he emerged on top of everybody else. I assume Rafizi being the chief election strategist had been instrumental in all of this. The PH's silence between the election night and Anwar's appointment speaks volumes, especially for Rafizi who had been a permanent fixture on PH's social media channels. Maybe one day, we'll get to learn of what really unfolded behind the curtain and the master stroke that secured the premiership for Anwar.

Commiserations to several figures whose losses I regret, although expected in some cases. Tun M, who were handed a heavy defeat in Langkawi (hope he finally gets to enjoy his retirement). Khairy Jamaluddin and Shahril Hamdan, who should be in line as the country's future leadership. And, bear with me but, Peja Azumu who looks like a guy I could go and have a cordial chat with over a cup of teh tarik.

All in all, I'm just hugely relieved that although many Malaysians may have turned to the right (75% Muslims now support sharia law, up from 52% in 2011), but the government still seems centrist, at least for now.

On one hand, I'm glad that it's not Muhyiddin and PAS resuming their abject failure of an exercise running the country.
On the other hand, I take the happy news with a measured degree of sobriety and concern. Anwar promised a lot of things, sure, but the one I'm wary about is his plan with the GLCs. As an employee of a GLC which has been consistently in the headlines for the wrong reasons, I wonder what the new administration means to me and my career. That's right, I'm just thinking of me, not the rest of my colleagues who mostly deserve it if the worst happens.

But I guess we all have a role to play and to some, a price to pay in the Malaysia Baharu (for real, this time).

PRU15: the (long) aftermath

Today would be the 4th day since PRU15 and we still don't have a federal govt yet.

Heard an interview with an economist on the radio otw to work yesterday who said that the hung parliament situation is a sign of Malaysian democracy maturing. I'm not sure if our political scientists would agree, but I do.

From my quick checking, hung parliaments oftentimes produce minority governments, which means the ruling party doesn't command more than 50% of the number of seats in parliament. Which given the pickle that we Malaysians are currently in, begs the question, why should we must have a coalition of parties commanding 112 seats?

PH is the single largest party that won the election with 82 seats, compared to PN with 73, BN 30, GPS 23, GRS 8, etc. BN has made it clear they won't join any coalition for now. GPS has so far "left it to HM King's wisdom". Therefore, PH should have the priority to form the government as it currently commands the most number of seats. Which begs another question, why does Istana need to call up all the BN MPs? In fact, why even invite statutory declarations from parties to nominate their choices for PM? Why not call for a dedicated parliament sitting to test the confidence for all the PM candidates? It certainly should have been done.

There are at least 7 countries worldwide that currently have a minority government. Canada, Spain, Sweden, to name a few. The govts are able to conduct business without major issues. We as another adopter of the Westminster system should take note from this. The govt can still present bills in parliament and parlay with the opposition MPs for support. This might be better since Govt will have to ensure the bills are good enough to be accepted by all the people's reps.

At this point, I wonder if the situation is intentionally being dragged out. It does make for a good opportunity for some people to flex their powers and maybe even fit in their own agenda. Sure, it makes sense to take this as an opportunity to prove they remain relevant and influential in the modern times.

But it does not make sense to still not have a federal govt 4 days after the election, while the economy takes the toll from the instability that the election that was supposed to restore stability has caused.

PRU15: the aftermath

Flew home on 18th evening to vote. It was a bit of a nerve wrecking wait at the airport to get the boarding pass since I was using staff standby ticket. The morning and afternoon flights were filled to the brim. Finally managed to get a seat on the additional flight that afternoon which was the last flight from KUL to TGG on that day.

The voting process on the 19th was pretty much uneventful except that the queue was very long. I went in at around 9 and left the pusat mengundi after 40mins.
Flew home the same day because I didn't want to get caught up in the reverse exodus on Sunday 20th.

So seems like we were all wrong on the projections. PN turned out to be the biggest winner, flipping seats from both BN and PH — the latter winning the most number of seats overall. I voted for BN - because PH had zero chance in Kuala Nerus and I couldn't let PAS win. But alas, PAS took the seat with a large majority. I'm amazed at how PN had managed to take the entire northeastern states with them. It's nuts.

As it stands, it's a hung parliament and nobody could form the govt yet. I would have preferred a PN-PH coalition since the differences seem mostly ideological. As opposed to BN which PH had intensely attacked for corruption cases and the same with GPS.

PN-PH also would see two gentlemen from Terengganu at the top. Hadi Awang as President of PAS and Rafizi as Deputy President of PKR. Rafizi might take the lead soon since Anwar had again lost the election as opposition leader.

All this will be in the backdrop as we face the recession next year.

Visit from a PU

Today was one of the most appalling days of me working here.
Received an invitation to a religious talk last Monday taking place at my office by some PU. At first, I thought it was a joke because there's a guy here who has the same name as the said PU. Thought it was just an invitation to a usual office's breakfast session.

And then today I realised it wasn't a joke. They had the event set up at the warehouse floor right where our storemen do their work.

It was appalling to me because one, it was a religious talk that should be kept out of a professional workplace. Two, because it was taking place right smack in the middle of the actual WORK place, on WORK hours.

Not to mention the PU arrived late so the people were left waiting from 10am til almost 11am. And that meant the program that was supposed to end at 10.30 got dragged to 12pm. That's a total of 2 manhours lost times about 30-40 who had to attend.

Talking about attendance, I'm not sure if it was compulsory or mandatory. That's because I had muted the work whatsapp group (LOL). But of course I didn't go. I hid at my old office which is now occupied by a colleague (who also wasn't going).

I just couldn't believe the level that this place has sunken into. The zealots who were also the cuplrits who had run the place down now dragged us a notch lower.

To me, it was abhorrent that the company's resources were robbed in the name of my religion. Especially when many of the staff's complaints including on welfare are being ignored.

If God listens to my prayers, now is the time He should grant me a new job.

PRU15

PH will not win elections again at least for perhaps another decade or so. The anti-malay muslim narrative strikes a high chord among the community. Our social fabric is a patchwork that will take a generation or so to be fixed.

For Anwar, it's complicated. On his own, he's a formidable and credible leader but with PH, he's the best PM we'll never have.

PN has proven to be a viable alternative to BN, already performing better than PH in the last 2 state elections. But being an alternative, people would still vote BN first and only go down the list if they have reservations with BN e.g candidate problems, and Zahid. For me, Zahid's premiership of this country is only a disaster waiting to happen. Left to his devices, this country will be dragged even further down with his pivot to Islam (his twisted version). We could see even more Jawi signages across the country. Heck, even official government business could be written in Jawi.

All said, I say BN wins with a simple majority. If it doesn't get the 112 seats on its own, GPS would be more than happy to supply.

Meanwhile, I believe it's time for PKR to have a new leadership and for it to run on its own.

UKM

It's only the second week at UKM and I'm already being left behind.
Didn't manage to catch up on the whatsapp group activities through the weekdays so I only had the weekend to properly do it.
Missing out on multiple notices already. Not even well prepared to attend the classes this week.

Was actually looking forward to learn Microeconomics and Maths — the subjects I like the most. But so far, I couldn't keep up with the teaching.

I'm determined not to let the tragedy of my diploma happen again. Was slacking off in a big way (because of work commitments), that I failed to graduate on time and had to take a semester off. I was lucky enough to realise the negative trajectory I was on and managed to muster all efforts to ensure I still at least get CGPA 2.75, because most of the bachelor programs require that as minimum. I was off mark by a bit, luckily on a positive margin, that I finally ended up with CGPA 3.00 — which qualifies me for all of the programs.

Anyway, I can't slack off no more. Time is running out.