The Malaysian general election 2013 (GE13) took place on the 5th May 2013. Like many other youngsters, I was not so into politics but I couldn’t help not to pay attention to it after knowing what have been happening during this election period. ge13 was an unforgettable event in the Malaysian history.
GE13 observed strong
competition between the ruling party, Barisan National (BN) and the opposition
coalition the Pakatan Prakyat (PR) which is formed by political parties,
People’s Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Pan-Malaysian
Islamic Party (PAS). I was attracted into this election issue when I came
across the video of a press conference by Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of PR. Anwar
showed the evidences of electoral roll fraud. Fraud cases are like more than
one hundred voters are registered at a housing address and a single voter is
registered as eligible voters at different areas (as shown in Figure 1). This
made me to worry that the general election is unfair because the Election
Commission of Malaysia (EC) is under the government’s control.
Figure 1. Same person with different IC numbers to vote at different places?
Besides, there were rumours circulating on Facebook that the government brought in foreign workers to vote in East Malaysia. I was really shocked and disturbed when I saw the photos of the arrival of the foreign workers at the airport. I couldn’t accept the fact that the foreigners were to vote in Malaysian election and our future! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!! This issue had caused strong dissatisfaction and anger among the Malaysian. People were determined to catch the foreign workers during the election day and several guidelines were circulating on Facebook about how to catch the illegal voters (the foreign workers), such as asking them to sing Negaraku and to tell the Rukun Negara.
I woke up early in the morning
on the election day. I was excited because it was my first time voting and this
election as crucial because this time Malaysians showed a strong determination
to overthrow the corrupted government. I felt great and proud to contribute a
vote for the country’s future. J I continued to follow the election updates on
Facebook. The social media is an alternate source of information despite the
traditional media such as the television and the radio. I saw photos and videos
(video here, and here) of the foreign workers who got caught at the polling centers when there were
trying to cast a vote at the centers. I was angry and frustrated with the
government’s irresponsible action to pay the foreigners and issued them
Malaysian ICs in order for them to vote for BN. The most disturbing part was to
see the polices and EC people escorting the foreign workers to vote. THIS IS
RIDICULOUS!!!!! Depress :(
In the evening, I was sitting in
front of the computer and kept refreshing the Facebook page and the EC website
for results. Same as most of the Malaysian, I wished to see the opposition
party to overtake the corrupted and irresponsible government which was trying
to win the election by playing dirty tricks. Official results were slow and it
started with BN’s winning at Sarawak, which was expected because Sarawak is
BN’s “fortress”. There were rumours saying that EC was holding back the
results at the other areas because EC was trying to modify the results. PR
leaders started to update the netizens on Facebook with the unofficial results
which showed a positive sign for PR’s victory over the ruling government.
However, later, the official results showed a dramatic turn and BN was the
winner at several controversial parliament seats. There was news spreading on
the internet that there were electric shortage at several polling centers when
PR candidates was leading with the vote count. Extra ballot boxes appeared at the
polling centers after the blackout which eventually led to the loss of PR
candidates. There were also videos circulating on Facebook showing SPR agents
got caught transporting unidentified ballot boxes which was illogical and
against the election ethical.
Figure 2. Blackout during the counting of the votes?
I was disappointed with these actions, so did the rest of the Malaysian, majority of them. We were disappointed with EC and polices, which were under the government’s influences as a result of the government’s corruption. Malaysians need a clean and fair election, we want a good government which can grant us a better future. A government with serious corruption culture is not going to bring us to a good future. GE13 marked an ending when the Prime Minister Najib announced BN’s victory at GE13 at the press conference while PR also held a press conference and announced that the coalition did not recognize the election results and will file an election petition due to the election fraud.
Lawan tetap lawan! The journey to democracy is still long but we the Malaysians are not giving up fighting for it because we love our country! UBAH!!
