Syabas Malaysia!!!!

What a night yesterday was. Not sure if I can call it a night. It started from evening till the wee hours of the morning.

After casting my vote in Bangsar for you know who, I headed home, feeling quiet confident that my candidate would win. This could be partly due to the chit chat I had with a few people while waiting in the long que where no one was secretive about their choice for Lembah Pantai MP.

I was at a birthday party at a restaurant in Jalan Dungun, Damansara Heights when mobile phones started ringing and beeping. It was about 8.45pm when word went around that DAP had taken Penang and that Chief Minister Koh had been defeated. Of course I was sceptical. This is after all Malaysia. A one party country. BN has never played fair and they still did not with the ink issue. Then more word came about the man whose face I would have loved to have seen and laughed at when he found out he lost his Sg Siput seat. One seat that most of the 100 odd guests at the party were keen to know the outcome was of course Lembah Pantai. Then someone read out a message he received from a friend that sweet Nurul Izza had won. I said that it must be a joke as I could not see Sharizat lose because there were a lot of BN supporters in Lembah Pantai.

I then started calling and messaging a couple of friends who I knew would be following developments as closely as possible and whom I share extremely fond memories of our time in Liverpool some 16 years ago. Bala, Kamal and I were adamant that this corrupted party should not get 2/3 majority. I was kept updated for the rest of the night. Come 10.45pm, I told my lovely wife that I wanted to get home. She of course turned to the other people on the table and complained about my obsession for Liverpool FC. It was then that I realised that the game was going to be on live at 11pm. With all the excitement of the election results, I had completely forgotten about my beloved team.

As we now live some 25km away in Bukit Jelutong, I naturally drove home like a demon. Warnings from my wife to slow down fell on deaf ears as I wanted to get home to check the results, to watch Liverpool, to celebrate the scums getting knocked out of the FA Cup (thanks Bala for the news) and the fact that all cops were busy with the elections.

At home, I jumped in front of the tv and put on channel 123 on Astro. I started catching up with the results. I kept clicking between starsports and astro awani. Each time I came back to the elections results, I would catch the phrase ..."mengalahkan calon BN dengan undian...." Five beautiful words. Despite that I still managed to catch all 3 goals in Liverpool's 3rd successive league victory without conceding a single goal.

After a rather busy day and a few whiskeys too many from the party, I dozed off on the couch in my tv room only to be awakened my male dog licking my face. I noticed it was 2.45am and as I was about to hit the off button on the remote when again I heard those 5 sweet words. It put a smile on my face as I switched off the tv.

I cannot believe it!!! Is this really happening? I checked every media website from bernama to cnn and aljazeera. This really happened. After 50 years of independence, we have finally achieved a true democratic state. For the first time in my 37 years of existence, did I truly feel proud being a Malaysian. I had lost so much hope and the number of times our constitution had been amended, it might as well had been written in pencil.

For the first time in a long long time, do I feel proud of all my fellow Malaysians. All of you who took it upon yourselves to make a difference. We have created history. We have taken our country back. Infact, today is our independence!!!! To me the scene of Tunku Abdul Rahman shouting "Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!" finally has meaning and significance.

As I write this, my eyes are welling up and my throat is choked when I think that the rakyat has spoken after 39 years of silence.

Syabas my fellow Malaysians!!!!!!!! Thank you for making a stand for change.

God Bless You All!!!