A New Wave of Nationalism

The recent elections in Malaysia seems to have given birth to a 'new wave of nationalism'. No longer can the coalition government rely on the usual media to influence voters, with the new age media - the internet and mobile phones making the oppositions views available to more people. Congratulations to them on giving the people a more balanced parliament.

Now what?

Looking at the scenario, its not as simple as just lumping the 3 opposition parties into one 'Barisan Rakyat' as marketed throughout the build up to election day. I hold my doubts as each political party has its own agenda. I won't go as far to say that everyone can be corrupted at a variable level, but time and time again, it has shown party members or even party leaders selling out their original ideals.

I asked two of my consultants (unofficial) of the opposition would have actually planned for this eventuality? I am waiting for their response to this. The reason being, its very easy to get carried away by a new wave of nationalism, but when it comes to the dirty work, who will stay back and do it? One saying I found always useful in the Malaysian society is "hangat-hangat tahi ayam", which is always the case when we look at the previous, "Be Cool, Car Pool" campaign, the "Tak Nak!" campaign, the "Rakan Muda" scheme and to a certain extent the "National Service" scheme.

It's always very easy to come out with a creative idea that blows people's mind away, but then what about the logistics? Has anything been thought through?

I've heard several speeches by Anwar Ibrahim speaking about the time when he was in power, the petrol price did not go up at all. They tried, but after opposition from the people, they reduced it back to the original rate. Now, it is not that I doubt his sincerity on this topic matter, but then when I first worked in the Oil and Gas industry, the price of crude oil per barrel was below USD30. Eight years later, the price per barrel has shot above the USD100 mark.

If I were a politician, can't I say that crude oil prices have gone up a bit more than triple the price. Taking that into account the fact that our petrol price has not shot up to RM3.30 per litre since then hasn't the government 'really' been subsiding rising costs? Of course being an economist student, there are more variables that we can put into that raw equation of mine to influence my argument. But so can politicians.

I really hope that given 3 months, we can see a difference in the governing of MY country. But like I said, the hard work starts here and before I can dream on, the three parties need to sit down in agreement and decide how they are going to run the respective states of Selangor, Perak, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan.

Turbulent times, but exciting times...

... one really hopes this country will be brought into further prominence with this new wave of nationalism.