March 8, 2008. Exactly six years before today. It’s a day where all Malaysian of any ages wouldn’t forget. A day where we truly understand the meaning of democracy. A day we realize how important our votes count, and not to forget a day that changes Malaysia forever. Remembering the night of March 8 2008, when I stare on the screens of my computer, looking at the live results broadcasting from the TV, full of shocks and disbelieves, struggling to gasper for air. We all know the storm was coming before the day. But nobody knew how strong it was. The election results show it all, stumbling some big-named politicians along the way, and making some freshman in politics a policymaker overnight. It’s an eventful day that truly caught everybody by surprise.
Till today, I keep thinking how much Malaysia has changed since then. People around started to realize the importance of one vote in the ballot. Instead of complaining how bad the government is, people started to register and vote to make their case clear. Citizens who have never voted before are taking an effort to dig out their voter registration to make sure they are eligible to vote next time around. The normal naive thinking of “It’s just only one single vote” is gradually diminishing as time passed by. In the meantime, young people are making an effort to register as a voter once turned the age of 21. All these makes out for the record high turnout achieved during the last election in 2013 of nearly 85%.
The great Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” All these changes we witnessed are all thanks to powerful of education. Education in the form of textbook, lectures, internet, magazines, news channels changes the way people think and perceived an issue. With the number of people getting quality education broaden, the number of fresh graduates increases as years go on, the industry is anticipating the arrival of more critical thinking mind. All these allow more people to have the ability to weigh the pros and cons. We don’t need to rely on just one single source for information. More people are able to access the internet more frequently, opening up more room of additional news sources to make a better judgement of an issue. Of course, there are lots of untrue stories and rumors circulating the internet. But through the events of the day, everybody realize how strong the power of education that ultimately gives people the better sense of judgement and the courage to make big moves when it is needed.
For once, politicians in the country possibly gained a lot more on that day. The most important lesson is to learn not to take anything for granted. A swift change of power is always possible in just a single day. The support that sends you into public office can equally topple you if you failed to perform. Politicians started to be more generous, friendly, and kind to the voters for an obvious reason. Your complaints, voices, and dissatisfaction can be loudly heard and solved instantaneously. Some of them even learn how to behave themselves in the parliament!
Perhaps many Malaysians had the same thought as mine. We are not any supporters of either party but we are definitely not a fence-sitter. But on the day we looked back what happen 6 years ago, we know Malaysia will never be the same after that day. What we want for our country is change. The power of change to ensure Malaysia can form a strong two-party system in place in our country which is consisting of both government and opposition. A strong check and balance system that is in placed in many developed countries. Till today it has nearly been 57 years since we gain independence from the British, but we never had one single change of government. Even though there are flaws and irregularity in the Malaysian election system, but the events of 8 March 2008 certainly changes the dynamics of the country and we all know the events on that day is a head start of propelling Malaysia to be a strong nation.
By,
Zhe Xu
8th March 2014
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