The forum organized jointly by Sin Chew Daily, Guang Ming Daily, EyeAsia and Sinchew-i two days after the elections at its head office in Petaliong Jaya attracted over 5,000 people.

Panle speakers included Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek (former Health Minister), Teresa Kok (MP for Seputeh and Bandar Kinrara state aseemblywoman), TianChua (MP for Batu), Wee Choo Keong (MP for Wangsa Maju), and Tay Tian Yan, deputy editor in chief.

Tay: Not only the recent political tsunami is a reform for Malaysia politics, it has also shown that Malaysia politics is gradually maturing.

After the elections results were announced, the public accepted it calmly and peacefully. This outcome shows that Malaysia will move towards a successful and practical direction. We do not see chaos in the streets. Politicians and party members did not do anything that would seem undemocratic.

I think we should praise BN. Even though they suffered such a great loss in this elections, but everyone, from the Prime Minister down to all the component party leaders, acted responsibly towards the results. This attitude speaks well of democracy in Malaysia.

The main impact of this elections is “two-third majority”. For Malaysians, after the opposition had successfully denied BN the two-third majority, we can truly have a two-party system.

BN is in transition after suffering from such a great loss. As they have been seriously weakened in power, the flawed racial policy of BN must also be changed. Should BN members be more tolerant, open-minded and not stress so much on racism? I think this is a big test for BN. If we can see from the results that the voters hate and reject racial politics, I think it has provided an answer for the transformation of the BN.

Chua: Malaysians should appreciate and feel proud of the results. Both the ruling party and the opposition accept the people's decision. No one is blaming the voters of making the wrong decision. They told us that they are now introducing a new democratic spirit. We are more matured now.

I am a straight-forward person. For the opposition, they have succeeded in five states to become the ruling party. However, the role they play is entirely different. Opposition only needs to raise questions and problem-solving seemed not to be their duty. Now that they have become the government, they have to do it themselves. The people's expectations may be higher than the ruling party's candidates.

In my short political experience, we need to have some experience to ensure that the cooperation between the state government as well as the central government is effective and smooth. The leadership can make a decision, but implementation and follow-up are done by civil servants. However, 95% of the civil servants are not our people, and there may be inconsistency between word and deed. I want to be very frank, we must have some experience in government administration, then only we will be able to say “what we tell our people will be implemented and our people will not be disappointed”.

During the elections, everyone has a common goal, which is victory. However, after the elections, could these party members be closely united and work together? BN has been set up for 50 years, but we will still have controversies when we work together.

Today, the BN members must think: what has BN done wrongly that caused this political tsunami.
Do the BN component parties, including MCA, have such courage to review their mistakes? The Chinese-based political party has been stressing on Chinese issues and Chinese education. Have they met the needs of the Chinese community in the 21st century? The problems they are facing today is the opportunities to participate in the economic development.

Kok: We are all very surprised at the outcome of the elections. It reminds me the Barisan Alternatif formed by the opposition in 1999, with “Reformasi” as a slogan and taking to the streets. I had been hit by the water-cannon, while Tian Chua has been arrested many times. However, we still couldn't overturn the BN. We couldn't even get one-third of the seats.

This time we are very surprised, because frankly we really do not have much confidence in this elections compared to the one in 1999. During our discussions, even the PAS members said that “we only want this elections to send us into Parliament”. They no longer relied on slogans.

Many people attended our political ceramah. It has never happen in history. However, we are mentally prepared: “Although many people come, it does not mean that it would be translated into votes.”

I'm very surprised at the elections results. The people who attended the ceramah are mostly Chinese and Indians. We can hardly see Malays. However, the election results, for instance, for Puchong parliamentary seats, we have many Malay votes from the 12,000 majority votes. Actually Malays have a lot of dissatisfactions. They didn't take to the street and expressed their feeling through political activities like what they did in 1999. They quietly vote for the opposition now.

Why did such a situation come about? I think we all know the Prime Minister have not realised many of his elections promises of 2004. For non-Malays are getting more and more tired on the ethnic and religious differences. We face the challenges of economic globalisation and the impact of China, but the country is not ready for it. In fact, many major businessmen have moved their business abroad. The small businessmen in the country are not able to get government contracts because of their skin colour. The breakthrough of the opposition parties is related to the quality of the voters, the younger generation and ICT (Information Technology).

Suddenly we rule in several states. The strong and experienced BN is watching over us. The third challenge we face is monopoly of the media by the political parties. How can we breakthrough these restrictions? We are facing the problems of local government inefficiency and corruption. How to control their power abuse and corruption? Furthermore, how do we attract foreign investments and increase their confidence in the new government?

Wee: Political tsunami will come sooner or later. It is undeniably that we are all afraid everytime BN mentions May 13 during each elections. I think this tsunami is not enough, the BN is still in control. Fortunately, we have a network and blogs. We all know who is the boss for Malay and English newspapers as well as the electronic media. There were 60 to 70 thousand demonstrators in the Bersih demonstration in October. However, the media reduced the number to 4000. How then can we believe in them? The Prime Minister is also the reason for their failure. Because of him, the three major races unite together and fight against BN.

BN has ruled for 60 years and they always talk about Chinese primary schools. However, they forgot about SJK (C) Damansara. It is the same for Malays and Indians. I met an old lady in her mid-70s. She said she wants to vote for the opposition, including PAS. The people are getting matured, because they have suffered too long. The Malays feel the same. In the past, 90 out of 100 Indians will support BN, but they know they have been disappointed.

We demand for changes and a two-party system. We want the opposition to become the ruling party. We can't bully the small parties, otherwise we will be no different from BN.

TianChua: Today we see is “the people's victory”. In the past, when we said we want regime-changing, many will say “you are lying”. The Chinese will ask: “How to vote? The Malays are unwilling to change”. The Indians will say: “We are minority, and can't change anything”. Malays think Chinese are not credible.

On the polling day, many people have changed their mentality: “I'll be responsible for my own vote. It is another matter if other people do not change”. Political tsunami is not a political entity, but it is a decision made by many people together. The changes we see today didn't come overnight. It has been accumulated over nearly 10 years of efforts.

When the Gerakan proposed “reinventing”, DAP said vote for them. After this elections, it is the time for DAP to reinvent. Teresa is the opposition party in the Parliament, and is the ruling party in the state. Not only she needs to change her language, she also needs to change her behaviour.

We don't have to rush to become the federal government. What we need to do now is to consolidate the regime of the five states and allow the people to see the three parties can govern together. Our most important step is to gain the people's confidence. Therefore, we should not believe in rumors that we are going to buy over BN members. It is time for us to consolidate the starting point of the two-party government system. We can't act hastily.

The Federal and state governments will establish a relatively normal and cooperative relationship. If we use confrontational way, we will all lose. If the central government adopts a mature and rational attitude and cooperate with the opposition state governments, perhaps we can jointly do a good job for the country's economy. The central government will not make such a mistake. The biggest improvement should be the upgrading on the subject of political issues and political debates.

The next elections is not about “vote for the opposition”, but is “vote for my programmes and issues”. May 13 and other racial issues should be thrown away. What we need is political debates. I am more optimistic regarding the media. When the gap between the ruling and opposition parties is getting smaller, I think the media space will be expanded. I am very optimistic for the next general elections. (Composed by Alice Tan/ Translated by LEE MEI NYEE/ Sin Chew Daily)

To be continued.

Click HERE for Part 2.