Thanksgiving in Penang, but in Malaysia a season of despair and a season of hope begins

It was special night on May 18, 2013 and a lucky one for the more than 60,000 Penangites who flooded the Padang Kota Esplanade that night. They got to hear some of the best political thoughts enunciated by the country's top leaders when they attended the thanksgiving rally hosted by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and the state executive council.

Guan Eng and his Pakatan Rakyat coalition had won a second term on May 5, trouncing Prime Minister Najib Razak's BN by 10 seats in the 40-seat state assembly. Guan Eng's DAP party took 19 seats, allies PKR won 10 and PAS one. The trio also amassed more than 70% of the total votes cast. The other 10 state seats were won by Najib's Umno party, which also leads the BN coalition.

But despite the success at state level, the Pakatan led by Anwar Ibrahim fell in the quest for the federal government to what is widely perceived to be massive vote-rigging, gerrymandering and electoral fraud.

In a speech that showed why the 53-year-old Guan Eng is so popular with Penangites, who in 2008 had rejected the BN after decades of flaccid and uneven rule, the Penang Chief Minister promised he would not let the electoral "injustice" at the federal level be swept aside by the success at the state level.

He vowed to embark on a 3-prong strategy to prod Najib and BN into conceding a review and re-election for the all the seats that are under dispute.

"We don't want a system where in constituencies of 150,000 (voters) Pakatan wins and (in those of) 15,000 BN wins. For every one seat PR wins, BN wins 10. Wherever there has been a seats contest that was dubious, we will challenge. We will challenge through the courts and if that fails, we will go through the political process for 'ubah'(change), which means we will fight it at Parliament, the state assemblies, forums. Then there would be the third process, through the 'rakyat' (people). Of course, we are not saying we will hold rallies like this every week but if we have to we hope you will come out and support us," Guan Eng said to thunderous applause.

Minority cannot impose its will on the majority

In Malaysia, the federal government controls almost all major decisions and policies including those that affect each state. In particular, funding and allocations under the annual Budget are decided by the federal government. So centralized is its power that it can reduce funding to a trickle so as to impoverish the state government and ultimately force the people back to its fold.

Overall, the Pakatan won 89 seats in the 222-seat federal Parliament and is disputing the 133 seats-victory claimed by BN. It also won 52% of the popular vote versus BN's 47%. So far, Pakatan has identified 26 seats where it claims to have "strong evidence" showing fraud. In Penang, Pakatan won 10 of the state's 23 seats in the federal Parliament during the May 5 general election.

Guan Eng also promised to fight a 7% GST tax proposed by the Najib administration, which hopes to collect RM27bil extra revenue a year to help it to cut record-high national debt.

"How can the minority try to impose tax on the majority," he said.

'One Person, One Vote, Same Democracy'

Saturday's rally had initially been themed 'One Person, One Vote, Same Democracy' and was due to be attended by Pakatan big guns. But after objections from the police, Guan Eng's state government was forced to tone down their event.

Even so, Anwar came as guest-of-honor and so did DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and DAP chairman Karpal Singh.

All 3 men made remarkable speeches (scroll below for videos) that underscored the depth of their vision and political 'class'. They vowed not to concede defeat and to struggle on to win back their "stolen" electoral victory.

"That we were robbed of victory is clear, the question what are we going to do about it? How do we move now," said Karpal.

"I don't know if it is going to be short haul or long haul but we will never surrender. No way," vowed Anwar, expressing the public concerns that if the corruption-tainted BN were allowed to govern for another 5 years, there might be 'nothing' left in the national coffer by the time the next general election is rolled out.

Young Malaysians will lead the nation from darkness into light

Kit Siang quoted from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities to sum up the political dilemma the Opposition and the people of Malaysia now faced.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way," said Kit Siang.

"That is where we are at now. We are in the best of times, we are in the worst of times. We are in a season of light and a season of darkness, agree? In the just concluded general election, we though we could bring change and set up a new government in Putrajaya but we were robbed of this change. It was a period of hope and a period of darkness. Najib with only 47% of the popular vote is the Prime Minister but Anwar with 51% of the popular vote is not the Prime Minister. It is the sense of despair, the sense of outrage, the sense of anger and that is why we are all here tonight."

"Although, there is despair there is also hope. There is also chance for maturity in the future. In particular, we see young people all over the country waking up, standing up for their rights for change in Malaysia," added Kit Siang.

Malaysia Chronicle