malaysia lost, but malaysia won

Malaysia lost...

Kiko, Halim, Hairy, Colin, Hanafi and I went to Birmingham to watch the All England Open Badminton Championships semi-finals on Saturday. Only two events involved Malaysians. The other Malaysians, including last year's men's doubles champions, Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong had already lost in the earlier rounds.

The first match was between Malaysia's doubles pair, Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah and South Korea's Jung Jae Sung-Lee Yong Dae. The Koreans won the first set. The Malaysians fought back and won the second set. Most of the crowd were cheering for Malaysia. Shouts of ‘Malaysia Boleh!’ frequently filled in the silence.

During the game, one of the Korean players disagreed with the ref's decision. He kept protesting and then he hit the referee's seat with his racquet. What happened next caught me by surprise. The ref actually showed him a yellow card. I never knew that could happen. So what happens if he does it again? Will he be given a red card? Will the team be disqualified?

Anyway, the final set was tight. Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah were leading 20-16. Only one more point to win the match. Alas, the Koreans had a stronger mentallity and eventually won 23-21. Sigh. Why couldn't they finish the game off? It was very disappointing.

The next match was between Lee Chong Wei and China's Chen Jin. I had high expectations because Chong Wei had beaten Taufiq Hidayat of Indonesia in the quarter finals. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very good game. Chen Jin won and rightly deserved it. So that was the end of Malaysia's journey in the All England Open.

Malaysia won...

Halim kept receiving text messages on updates on the General Election 2008 in Malaysia. So we were informed of all the latest results even though we were in Birmingham, without any internet-connected laptops within our reach. I knew that BN would lose a lot of seats, but I didn't anticipate Selangor and Perak falling into the opposition's hands.

Nevertheless, congratulations to the rakyat for making BN open their eyes. Talks of BN being confident of retaining their two thirds majority, retaining certain states and winning a large majority in other states were just that. Talks. Words that come out from arrogant people who have lost touch with the people that they are supposed to be representing, the rakyat.

If one was only reading and watching the local media, one would be very surprised by the results. However, those who have been surfing the net on the goings on in Malaysia wouldn't be much surprised, since they have been exposed to the country's less flattering realities.

I seriously think that BN has underestimated the power of the internet. They have been criticizing bloggers and saying they were detrimental to the nation. They didn't realise that their action would just make people retaliate and despise them.

The opposition however have used the internet to their advantage. News that will never be published in the mainstream media is available on their party's websites. It's not just the opposition that write blogs, neutrals also have their own blogs, giving their critical views on both the government and the oppositions.

I think the fall of certain states and also the Wilayah Persekutuan seats was mainly influenced by the internet. People are more aware. They don't depend on the mainstream media only. Come on BN, the rakyat aren't dumb folks who need to be guided in everything that they do. They have brains you know, and they can think. Berfikir secara kritis dan kreatif.

Of course, there are many other reasons that caused BN to fall. Ethnic tensions, crime, and inflation are some of the major concerns of the rakyat.

Now it is up to everyone elected by the rakyat, whichever party they are from, to pull themselves together, and work for the people. It's time for you to fulfil the promises that you have made. Now that Plan A has been successfully implemented, I hope that your Plan B, Plan C and so on are good, if not better.

Work not for yourselves, but for the people that you represent, since you are the wakil rakyat. Our voices. Our concerns. Please don't let us down.