Last week was the Johor State Election and after a couple of weeks of preparation and talks by politicians to sway voters to their bloc, we witnessed the winning political party on Saturday night. It was none other than The National Front (Barisan Nasional, BN), winning back the state of Johor after The Alliance of Hope (Pakatan Harapan, PH) ended BN’s six-decade stronghold of Johor back in 2018.
The results from the Johor State Elections from 56 state legislative assemblies (DUN) are as follows:
- 40 seats won by BN – 33 UMNO, 4 MCA, 3 MIC
- 13 seats won by PH – 10 DAP, 1 PKR, 1 Amanah, 1 MUDA
- 3 seats won by PN – 2 BERSATU, 1 PAS
Barisan Nasional (Blue), Pakatan Harapan (Red), Perikatan Nasional (Grey), MUDA (Black)
Was this win a surprise?
For the past two years, we have been living in unprecedented times. Not only the Covid-19 pandemic was causing havoc on our lives (losing work, experiencing loss in business, etc), but the politics in Malaysia was also pretty much going into shambles. After the May 2018 historic victory by the PH coalition, amidst the huge scandal over 1MDB, Dato Sri Najib Razak, Jho Low and others — which are still trialled in the United States of America, by the way — things seemed like it was going to go smoothly for 5 years with PH in charge but alas, everything was cut short by the Sheraton Move in February 2020.
The “stab on the back” created a downward spiral in many sectors.
It seemed that even in this time and age, humans can still be cursed into frogs and you can see them hopping from one party to the next just so that they are “safe” in Malaysia’s political field. But how safe is safe? Which coalition is the strongest yesterday? Will the same coalition still be strong tomorrow? Who thought that accepting frogs are acceptable?
In just two short years we have seen how one coalition that was chosen and mandated by the rakyat was quickly overturned through the back door in a period of just one week. Then, a man who at first was supported by many because *cough* he was good in reciting doa’s and Quranic verses was overthrown by his own supporters in mere months. New coalitions formed and dissolved, frogs hopping here and there, the loud ones wanting and claiming posts and power, and where did we end up now? From one small election in Cameron Highlands, we find ourselves at the most recent state election in Johor. What next?
I didn’t think it was a surprise that BN won. It doesn’t matter if there was only a 54% voter turnout that day. Even though supporters of PH are loud on social media, that volume did not translate to the ballot or the last few state elections. Was it really the fault of rakyat or was it the weaknesses of PH and PN that caused BN to be able to rise back in power?
Where did PH go wrong after the huge win back in 2018? With this recent win in Johor, I have a feeling that a General Election would be imminent in the near future but will blocs other than BN be ready?
Aliza M. is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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