GE15 thingz

I remember during May 9th, 2018.

GE14 was one of the most prominent elections in Malaysia of all time - paving the way for a new government to form during that time from the opposition bloc.

Politics was new to me (and still is) given I have never followed any news on the country's current government (I knew Najib was our PM at that time) and of course news about the kleptocracy case went viral, and people brought up the murder of Altantuya as a plot to oust the then Prime Minister. I tried to beat my apathy by reading news, but still needs some improvements on that part.

And Sasha being Sasha - being an idiot for not register for voting, and very unaware of the current issues, how to register for voting etc. Thank God for AVR and UNDI18. Youngsters nowadays are so lucky - with tiktok, and other social media platforms, they are able to get information at the tip of their hands and not having to queue up to register for voting. 

Even though I didn't vote during the previous election, I still get the election feels you know what I mean? My then boyfriend (now my husband) brought me around to witness citizens standing under the scalding heat to hold the flags that represents the party they supported, and we honked our cars to let them know our support too. A cool way of communicating tbh.

But election this time around is like an impasse. There was no flag waving and honking in my area, but the flags and posters were hung EVERYWHERE. 

Long banners hung around in our area

So yeah it was kind of boring. I was expecting any event or flashmob happening around my area, but I guess they have different ideas this time around. Or maybe they're not allowed an intense campaign? Idk..

And so the next day, the day of the election. GE15 - where youngsters finally get to cast their vote, where suddenly we have Perikatan Nasional (another coalition) to contest along with the current govt and opposition in idk how many multicornered fights. And I'm so excited as its my first time voting as well! Like I was planning what to wear, which shawl to match, can I wear this pants? Nahh everyone will just wear their shirts and shorts maybe so no overdressing.

I planned to meet up with my highschool friend as we are voting at the same place and same saluran (line?queue) at our highschool - which is just a walking distance from my house. 

The queue was so.frigging.long. 

What a bad timing for my bladder to be full. The queue line is still long, and I had the urge to pee. ahh great. And I know how my school toilet is gonna be so I throw caution to the wind and decided to just hold in my pee until I get back. Nah ahh..there's no way I'm ruining or wetting my white pants (its comfy okayh?)

So here are some snippets while waiting:

Before going in 

Proudly flaunting my inked finger

Mandatory ice cream

We saw some familiar faces from our batch, but a Hello and wave will suffice because we are still queueing. The weather was cool and breezy, which is a good thing given that it took us one hour to settle with voting and everything. Alhmadulillah. It was a smooth one, everything was at ease the whole nine yards.

After our voting shenanigans, we headed to Melawati Mall to see if we can grab any election promotion (ummm talking about showing our purple finger..helloo) and apparently Tealive has promotion - buy 2 for RM15. And we had burger king because it has a promotion.

Then came the moment of trepidation - the election results. We started to keep tab of the results since 8pm - those who are leading, and eventually won/lose their Parliamentary seats. 

During GE14, there were blackout issues happening at the counting agent I think? And similar things happened in GE15. Reporters pulled an all-nighter, stalling time while waiting for SPR to announce the results, and even though a certain coalition is leading - still not enough majority seats and up till now we dont know who our Prime Minister is. This is wild. At least during GE14 we knew it during 3am but it is alreeady 2 days after the election and we are still clueless. It is up to the King to decide now. 

Only in Malaysia, where we are uncertain of our future, where we go down and vote but still not enough to form a government, alas, the King has to decide based on negotiations with politicians and showing their SD's. 

Whats gonna happen? Idk..lets pray for a better Malaysia and justice precedes us. Ameen.