2 days ago, I watched on Youtube as Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad was sworn in as the 7th Prime Minister in Malaysia at Istana Negara late at night at 9:30 pm. He is 93 years old, the oldest Prime Minister to be sworn in around the world today. Finally, the power of the rakyat (citizens) were heard and I felt melancholic as I observed the swearing in process. The transfer of power from Barisan Nasional (BN) to Pakatan Harapan (PH) (Coalition of Hope) was filled with anxiety and fear as Barisan Nasional which had ruled the country for 60 years will make it difficult for Pakatan Harapan to have power.
Before the general elections on 9 May 2018, I had educated myself in watching the rallies made by the politicians on Youtube when they were campaigning throughout the country to persuade the citizens to vote for their party. I am amazed by the difference in the number of crowds between the two political parties which were having rallies in the country. For instance, a rally in the state of Melaka attracted thousands of people there. There were a number of reasons on why it attracted a large number of people to their rallies.
As I was more involved in watching the rally on Youtube particularly which was laid by Tun Dr. Mahathir, only three words come to mind, “Pencuri, Penyangak dan Penyamun”. These were the words which were thrown by him to the former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak. These words means a thief or a crook in Malay. I wondered why these words were used to describe Najib Razak, I dug in further on Youtube and found that the Good and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in 2015 causing common items to go up. Around RM42 billion was not accounted for. Najib Razak claimed that RM2.6 billion was transferred to his bank account because an Arab donated to him. The debt of the country was ballooning to heights unknown. These problems existed during Najib Razak’s time as Prime Minister.
The day of the election came and I tune to this youtube video. In real time, as the Election Commission (EC) was counting the votes to update us as to which seats the parties won, I was entertained by the live comments. For instance, when BN was leading, the mass was saying that how can this happened, PH will lose and the ‘dedak’ (bribe) was the reason why BN was leading. For your information, the said video is currently 1st on Trending. I started watching the live video from 7 pm till 3 am. The Election Commission was slow in counting the votes and I suspect they were doing the recount on the seats that PH was winning. Tun Dr. Mahathir knew that PH was going to win way before the official election results were announced.
Yesterday, he announced his line of Cabinet. Only three ministers were announced, Mr. Lim Guan Eng as Finance Minister, Yang Berhormat Tan Sri Dato' Haji Muhyiddin Yassin as Minister in Home Affairs and Yang Berhormat Tuan Haji Mohamad Sabu as Defense Minister. Mr. Lim was Chief Minister of Penang previously and Penang is now one of the richest states in Malaysia. I believed he can solve the financial woes of Malaysia.
I congratulate Tun Dr. Mahathir for swearing in for the second time as the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Judging from his 22 years track record as the 4th Prime Minister previously, I believed that he will have the ability solve the country’s problem which was started by the previous Prime Minister and we will see Asian Tiger of Southeast Asia once again. Lastly, I congratulate the Malaysians for kicking Datuk Seri Najib out of power made a wise choice in electing the right leader. Signing off! Sejuk!