Walking on thin ice

malaysiatoday
[...] Actually, not all the 11 million registered voters came out to vote. As what happened in the 11 general elections before the 8 March 2008 general election, only about 70% of the registered voters came out to vote. The balance 30% stayed home, as they had done since two years before Merdeka in 1955 when we had our first (municipal) elections (the first general election was in 1959). And 12 general elections have shown that only 70% of the registered voters bother to vote. The other 30% do not care who rules Malaysia.

Then we had the 5 million eligible voters who did not even bother to register as voters. So only half the 16 million or so eligible voters actually cast their vote. 8 million Malaysians voted on 8 March 2008 and 8 million more either did not vote or did not register to vote. Half the ‘eligible’ Malaysians sought change. The other half were not concerned what happens to this country. That is the reality of the situation.

And the opposition got only 50% of the votes (which means votes from 25% of the eligible voters). But the 50% that the ruling coalition garnered (which also means votes from 25% of the eligible voters) helped them form the government in all but five states plus they managed to form the federal government with slightly under the two-thirds majority that it hoped it would get. But it still managed to form the federal government, nevertheless, with just half the votes.

Would 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament crossing over to Pakatan Rakyat help solve our problems? Not if the 30 are all non-Malays and the MP for Pasir Mas, Ibrahim Ali, plus the MP for Kulim, Zulkifli Nordin, cross over to Barisan Nasional to reduce Pakatan Rakyat’s majority even further. And we really do not know how many more Pakatan Rakyat MPs, or even some State Assemblymen/women, are lurking in the shadows waiting for the word to change sides. And this is not impossible to happen....read more.