Sound Familiar?

There was election in May and the election was preceded by episodes of violence in KL. The sporadically violent episodes have a racial tinge to them. Campaigning is not along racial lines, but there are some politicians who have displayed overtly racial messages and symbols. Elections were held on May 10th. Both the procession and the election went off peacefully.

They say that their guard was relaxed. But the elections were troubling, creating critical areas of uncertainty. The ruling party, massively successful in the previous election, now lost on several fronts, although it maintained sufficient seats to rule. An elated an apparently surprised opposition, holds victory parades in the capital…and violence breaks out.

Could that be a sound byte from May 2008, assuming elections have been held? We found it a bit too close for comfort. But actually, we just pulled it from the Journal of Asian Studies, but rewrote it so that the tenses were changed and the dates were removed. Ok, so that was a bit of an underhanded trick…we agree.

But it was meant to point out this – the coming election should be one of the most exciting in decades. Racially, there is probably less actual tension than perceived. In fact, the fact that Malaysia went through the Asian Financial Crisis with no racial tension or violence whatsoever is testament to the underlying racial harmony.

Yup, its OTBM’s spider sense again. Here’s the start of our Election Watch.