Voting for the first time, a written history

POSTED ON: Thursday, May 10, 2018 @ 10:00 AM | 0 comments

Today I'm 24 years old, going to be 25 in the month of June. The requirement to register for voting is the age 21. 5 years ago in the year 2013, I didn't get my chance to vote as I was only 20 years old, just a year before the required age to start voting for the good of my country.

And in that year 2013, the nation was angry, upset, disappointed, sad when they're ripped from their voice to vote. The vote which was unfair and just to the country Malaysia.

Fast forward to the present. It's 2018, Malaysia once again is patiently waiting for their time again to vote and this time, hoping and praying that change will happen today. You see, it's been 60 years that only one political party has been winning the election since independence in 1957. Barisan National is the name.

And while I'm not good with history and wasn't interested in politics whatsoever, it was quite appalling to hear that Barisan National was always the ruling party of Malaysia.

If you were to talk to myself 5 years ago, I would say that my vote doesn't matter since there's no chance will happen and Barisan National will keep on winning. I'm always never into politics so why would I vote? If you would hear me say those things, you will be angry at me. Yes, I was that person.

But during the 5 years, I see many changes. So many, the one that stood out was the scandal that rocked the world and brought Malaysia to shame, the 1MDB scandal. I won't go too many details as you should already know bits of it by now, but when the news broke, the nation was fueling with rage. By how the election was tampered with.

Now, on May 9th 2018. We're back again and this time, I'm at the right age to vote.

The night before, I prayed. I prayed that somehow that would be a chance, perhaps a miracle that the opposition party, Pakatan Harapan would win. It's on a Wednesday, a public holiday, schools and offices are closed.

I went to cast my vote at around 1pm, with the crowd still around and lining up. It was hot that day despite I was on the first floor of the school corridor, there was shade but it was still hot, thankfully there's a strong wind blowing every now and then. It took roughly 20-30 minutes until I finally cast my vote. With my right index finger as proof that I voted ( I'm lefthanded so they let me dipped my finger with my right hand).

Time flew rather quickly and just like that the voting ended and it's has come to the tensest moment. The result.

I waited. The nation waited. It was a tough race seeing Pakatan Harapan and Barisan National racing back and forth with numbers rising every now and then. At first, BN was leading, then PKR it was tense to watch.

Then..., it got really suspicious. The results stopped updating. Videos circulating on Facebook that there's suspicious activity happening to compromised the voting count. It's like 2013 all over again.

However, despite that, the nation still waited. Staying up all night just waiting to see who would win the parliament and thus. The hour dragged, it was already 12am at this point, almost 1am I was feeling tired, unsure whether I'd be going back to work the next day. Though PKR promised they will give us 2 public holidays if they win, I still went to bed after that.

I don't know how long I've slept but I somehow awoke, as if something has woken me up, not in an eerie way but my conscious was telling me something that I should wake up. Something has happened. And the one thing you should know, you should ALWAYS TRUST YOUR GUTS.

Then, my mum called me up. We'll be getting two days of holiday. And that would only mean one thing. I asked her back, "Did Pakatan won?," She said, "Yes,"

Immediately I got up from bed and hurried to turn on the computer to look at the news, I turned on my phone the same time and got the news from my employer that he declared holiday.

The news was everywhere on my computer screen. And I can tell you this, it felt too good to be true. It felt like I was dreaming.

Somehow, Tun Mahathir, the well respected former Prime Minister won the election. (TLDR in case you're not familiar. Tun M was under BN when he was Prime Minister until he resigned in 2003. He was in the office for the last 22 years. The longest serving PM and the record still held by him. However when the scandal of our current PM rocked the nation. Tun M is the only person that could stop him. And in order to do so he joined the opposition to take the current PM down.)

History has been made. That night. For the first time, the opposition won. The nation has spoken. Tun M becomes Prime Minister for THE SECOND TIME. The nation will also be getting the first female deputy prime minister. And every time, I look down at my right index finger, where it was stained with the indelible ink, it's a sign that I contributed that history.

With that my friends is how my first time voting contributed history.

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