Exactly ten years ago today, was the morning that my brother, my mother and I were robbed at knife point at my parents’ home before the sun came up. A few hours later, my petrol engined car had diesel mysteriously added to its fuel tank, whilst my laptop which contained our detailed campaign plans and classified strategy documents, which was locked in our campaign headquarters was stolen. All in the same morning.
Incidentally, it was also day 4 of the 12 day campaign period leading up to the fateful polling day of the 2008 General elections. The campaign was in full swing- at least for our opponent it seemed. I was the campaign manager for the Perak state assembly seat of Canning, one of the three under Ipoh Timor. My candidate was a fresh faced 29 yr old junior lawyer up against a Gerakan incumbent.
It could have been a coincidence, but my candidate and I felt that we had just experienced first hand the high-handed-ness of politics a la Barisan Nasional. We had no time, nor the capacity to be fazed; we just made a police report and continued as planned and scheduled.
But one conversation I had that morning did get deeply etched into my memory. It was right opposite our opponent’s campaign headquarters, where my car was parked. It was with a by-standing elderly gentleman who pointed out that my petrol cap was opened and there was diesel dripping out of it when I was trying to start my car to no avail.
He jumped straight into the conclusion that it was the work of “our opponents’ people”. Of course I thought just as much, but I had no proof and it would be unbecoming for us to throw such an allegation to the public. He went on to conclude that it’s hopeless for us to win.
“Young man, you all have my vote as you have for the last 3 elections. But I advise you to not get too involved if you want to have a future. You all will never win, they control everything. My children all gone overseas already and won’t be coming back. This country is rotten beyond saviour” the gentleman’s words still ring as clear as daylight in my mind till this very day, ten years later.
Though I continued as though nothing happened, truth be told I felt similarly in my mind. But the mixture of anger and blind conviction, as well as the sheer gravity of the tasks at hand and the monumental challenges ahead pushed me into a strange but productive state of denial. But emotionally, it wasn’t as clinical as that.
I cannot be blamed for seeing the robbery as part of a political play to intimidate. All throughout the morning, thoughts of withdrawing from the campaign dominated my thoughts. The voices of my brother and my mother calling me to open my bedroom door telling me she was being restrained at knife point several hours earlier was playing through my mind on a loop all day long. The fear was too real to ignore and to continue meant exposing myself and my family to more of the same.
Call it selfishness or youthful ignorance, I was able to overcome the fear and continued running the campaign. Miraculously, I managed to end the day being more determined- not to win, not to defeat our opponent, not to deliver victory to my candidate or my party- but to get our message across to the electorate.
Going into the 12th General Elections ten years ago, we had no coalition, no common manifesto, no successful record in government, no experience in government, and I dare to even say that there was no ambition to be in government at any level. Our objective and outward messaging was to deny BN of a two thirds majority in any legislature, and to break the UMNO-BN hegemony.
Even at the above narrated juncture, we hadn’t the slightest inkling of the tsunami that hit us on the 8th of March 2008. The people’s fear of negative consequences in overtly supporting us was overwhelming, and the mighty machinery of the regime was in our faces everywhere we turned.
The narrative on the ground, was one of unchallengeable certainty that the BN regime would sweep up another round of victory, and the opposition would be further relegated into the corners of political obscurity.
I’ve not met the gentoement who gave me advice to walk away since, but history proved him wrong. We won that seat from Gerakan with a resounding majority. DAP won all 18 State seats contested and there was a change of government in 4 states, and a total of 5 states being helmed by the thereafter formed federal opposition coalition. My candidate subsequently got appointed as the Perak Public Accounts Committee Chair. The people prevailed- not only then but also in the following General elections by us taking the majority vote across the nation. The rest was history.
Today, ten years later, we are once again faced with the uncertainty of the opposition’s prospects. The ruling regime is also projecting strength, much like they did in 2008. The pessimists, the nayesayers and objective observers of the current conditions are forecasting doom as they did then. The difference being, the BN of today, is much more mired by scandals and have outdone themselves in terms of policy failures and hardships they have brought upon the people.
Today, ten years later, the opposition can substantively call ourselves a government in waiting, and there are swathes of people who have enjoyed the fruits of their own democratic will in electing the incumbent Penang and Selangor state governments. And my candidate 10 years ago and I, are now both young lawmakers, still holding stronger than ever our convictions. However, we now have teams of activists and party members who have joined us, double or more of the strength in numbers of what we had then.
Today, ten years later, Malaysian politics have gone through game-changing tectonic shifts just between the last and the upcoming elections. The political landscape has changed beyond recognition, and the ground is unprecedentedly ripe and ready for Malaysia’s first democratic regime change.
For me, it was sheer blind faith in the power of fellow Malaysians to do the right thing, and the resilience of ‘democracy’ as a movement that got me through that fateful day. It was also the persistence of thousands of other Malaysians who collectively did the same as, or more than I 10 years ago, that brought about the irreversible change that took place in the 2008 GE.
I can’t speak for others but I didn’t work for, nor wish for the political tsunami that took place then; I just translated my hope for a different destiny into actions. What transpired was much more than I had hoped for then.
I guess I’m asking you my fellow Malaysians to hold on tight to your Hope for a different destiny in this coming general election. Translate that into actions and you might find that what transpires could be beyond your wildest dreams.