GE13: Are Malaysians Happy?

To say that Malaysians are happy or should just accept the outcome of GE13 is to pour oil to the fire and to add insult to injury.

The majority, more than 50%, had voted against the status quo - had, in fact, voted for change.

However, this was not reflected in the outcome, where Barisan won more Parliamentary seats than Pakatan to form the Federal government principally because of what we justifiably perceive as a rigged election and also because of the unequal weightage between a rural vote and that of an urban one.

For example, a rural constituency of 10,000 gets to send an MP whereas an urban constituency of 100,000 also gets to elect only one, not 10 MPs.

Further, the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, where Barisan's strength lies, for one reason or another, including alleged massive vote buying and intimidation and the illegal granting of instant citizenship to large numbers of foreigners in Sabah to get them to vote for them (Barisan), as the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the matter has shown, get hugely disproportional representation in their favour in this way.

This first past the post system is and, therefore, should be seen and acknowledged as an unrepresentative one and done away with in a democracy where the view of the majority is supposed to be king, not a poor bridesmaid.

But I digress.

Malaysians are not happy because we feel that our votes have been hijacked

As a result, the Pakatan coalition and even Bersih do not reognise Barisan has having won legitimately

The onus is now on the Malaysian Election Commission to explain and clear the doubts.

In the light of past experiences, however, few Malaysians have any illusion of, and sadly have little faith in, the august Commission.