What a jubilant week it has been for many Malaysians!

I never thought change of this extent would come now… really not.
To have previously cringed every time we made world news in the past 10 years; to revelling in the fact we’re now described as the beacon of Asian democracy, having the world’s oldest prime minister, and appointing our first female deputy prime minister… it felt like a dream.

On Wednesday, i went to Publika in the late morning to meet with Dianthus cos she wanted to give me floral tuition to help her out at an event. I planned to go to my voting station at 3pm (as i’ve done in the past 2 elections). I don’t like mornings, and i don’t like queues. I don’t really get why people love lining up for 1-2 hours at 8am, but i’m happy watching their enthusiastic choices playing out on Instagram 😀

When i went to the school in TTDI to vote, i was in and out in under 5 minutes, reminiscent of every time i voted. Just go in the arvo ppl… kancheong for what? Heh. Right after voting, i dropped by Murat’s new F&B venture (the Silly Goat in TTDI) where they were giving out free beers to those who had a stained pointer finger (from the ink to ensure no revoting). Then after that i went home to chill and wait.

Jesh was in town and invited me to the Marriott for drinks that night, but i said i was going to avoid the city… I don’t know what the situation was going to be, and i’d rather be safely snuggled at home refreshing the results online than accidentally caught in some clash (who knows?!). I think he thought i was being lame, but now as an (older) adult, i just do what i please instead of trying to please everyone!

That night, i studied the results… they looked promising, but i was being realistic and not getting my hopes up… cos you never know right. By 2am i was yawning and decided that no matter what happened, the results would be what they are when i woke up.

8:30am, i aroused and checked my phone. 122 seats. I couldn’t believe it. Over simple majority by 1 additional seat!

I lay in bed still half asleep wondering if this was real. Then Val (who slept over) spoke up, “Did BN win?”
I smacked him on the shoulder, “Why must you say that!? NO THEY DIDN’T!!”
For some reason, i didn’t feel like i could celebrate with him cos he has no idea what it feels like… he’s not Malaysian.
While he was outside in the living room, i stayed in bed and… started crying..!
Super emo. I cried cos it finally happened. I cried cos it was unbelievable. Still tearing a bit as i’m writing this days later.

And then the realisation and joy kicked in, and i felt like dancing, running out to the streets, calling everyone to meet up and celebrate!!!

Alas, most of my friends had been up late celebrating already (making me feel pretty FOMO) and were all fast asleep.

I went out, ate hawker breakfast with King & Adeline, went to see my parents to watch the news with them, then headed to the Marriott to finally meet Jesh and J & Lisa from the States. The city was relatively empty save for tourists… Bukit Bintang was quite empty, with no locals walking around. That night, Mei Sze bought me a belated birthday dinner at Majapahit, complete with cake and present and we had a sweet time celebrating our happiness on the election results, then i headed to Locker & Loft where Deep was so happy, he threw a party at the bar with free flow.

While driving along the roads the past few days, i silently thanked all the candidates and volunteers who worked so hard to make this happen… and even the individuals who flew back in from the States and Australia just to vote. Amazing. Obvs it couldn’t have happened without Tun M rallying up with Pakatan Harapan and getting over most of the previous BN supporters. I mean, if you think about it, 10 years ago we were voting for BN (cos back then it was either BN or PAS 0_-).

I hope everyone can stop being so sensitive about who other people + their partner / husband / wife supports, and cease unnecessary online bashing. It’s their individual right… results are done and dusted, just calm down everybadeh. Also, i find it rich hearing strong opinions from people who didn’t even vote and have so much to say. In the words of a friend over lunch today, “If they didn’t vote, they can just shut the fuck up. Seriously.”

One thing i noticed in the voting statistics was how we’re all still racially profiled in our geological areas. How many percent Malays, Chinese, Indians, DLL, and so on. I hope in time, this profiling is abolished. So many of us now are mixed, how can one be profiled like so..? What if your father was Indian, and your mother Malay-Chinese…

All in good time… for now we’re just watching the crashing drama unfold with Najib and Rosmah.

I’ll spend my time imagining how all the money that will be returned be funnelled towards our country’s health, education and environmental situation.

xxx

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