In Malaysia, It’s Back to Square One

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia–

BACK TO SQUARE ONE.

It is all over now. The nomination, the campaigning and then, they came, for polling. When the results came out, it was three for the People’s Coalition [PR] and one for the National Front [BN].

In the federal Parliament, the BN is ruling with a comfortable majority. The PR is the Opposition. However, the PR is the victor in four of the nine states of the Peninsular. The eastern States of Sabah and Sarawak is also ruled by the BN.

Now, a little over a year after the General Election of 2008, the Malaysian political scene is as noisy as ever. The results of the three by-elections seemed to affirm the assumptions by our local political observers that things are not going to change that much. The contested Parliamentary Seat, Bukit Gantang in the state of Perak, was returned to the Islamic Party. Of the two state seats, one, which is Bukit Selambau in Kedah State was also returned to the PKR while the state seat of Batang Ai went to BN.

Despite the many changes which was instituted by the ruling BN coalition during the last days of March, there is little evident that it had settled in. A few days is actually not long enough if one is to make positive changes.

Gone are talks of dramatic changes and dreams of making it to Putrajaya which so preoccupied Anwar Ibrahim and his band of followers.

As of now, march 2009, the states under the National Front[BN] rule are:

Perlis, Perak, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Johore,Pahang, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak.

The states under the PR[Opposition] rule are: Kelantan, Penang, Kedah and Selangor.