Election Watch (25 & Final Part)

The News From Ipoh

All good things must come to an end. And so, this is the final entry in this series - before GE 08. It has been an interesting journey these past 13 days. My last thoughts:

1. If I want to believe the groundswell, the news is that the Opposition will do better this time around, with the ruling BN coalition suffering losses, some expected, others not so. I hope that a few states come close to falling.

2. Parliament will have a better representation of the Barisan Rakyat.

3. The two thirds majority will still stand for the BN, even though many feel that should be the first thing to go. However, reality tells me otherwise, as much as I hope so.

4. This GE will either be the end of race-based political parties and the enhancement of multiracial ones, or the exact opposite. In that case, better get ready to migrate. If you can't afford it like me, then be prepared to suffer as the BN takes it out on us.

Finally, no matter where we come from, or where we are going after this GE, I end this with a thought by Rabindranath Tagore who wrote in his Gitanjili:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

May we wake up to a better, stronger, united Malaysia come 9/3/08.

God bless Malaysia. God bless you and your families as you fulfill your duties as Malaysians.