My eyes are shutting as I write this, a symbolic depiction of the situation in our country as of now.

Black boxes are popping up one by one on my Facebook feeds and chats. I needn't say the official results; you know what they are. It is simply a matter of mopping up the spills now, figuring out how many more seats were officially won by the now-ruling party, where the states stand, and who's going to form the next cabinet. How did this happen?

Rallies are just rallies

Campaigning reached a fever pitch in the run-up to the election, but let's face it: was there really a fresh, new vision for Malaysia on offer in this election?

And as much as this election was lost in such a painful way, I am glad that it did. My posts yesterday seem prescient now: Pakatan, you don't really deserve a win yet; Barisan, there is still a sliver of hope for your credibility.

Of course, the rallies were why we were all bullish about change. We saw throngs of citizens massing upon the events held by Pakatan. But do these political congregations a la rock concerts dictate a better future for Malaysia?

Is that really where discussions about the very soul of the nation will happen? A ceramah is not democracy unless it encourages people to think for themselves.

We could have seen that coming also by the fact that many of these massive rallies were pulled off in cities, doctored by a few other factors.

Gerrymandering to turn the tables

The last-minute shenanigans have captured everyone's attention, and I am not just talking about the blackouts and Pokemon-esque "A wild ballot box appears!" moments.

However, given what little we know about the voting patterns, it is apparent that this election was already lost from the start, with all of these disgusting tactics being simply the icing on the cake.

Seats retained or taken by Pakatan were won with incredible majorities. Seputeh alone saw a majority of 50,000. Now imagine if that majority had been smeared out over ten marginal Barisan-favouring seats. Would Pakatan have been in power tomorrow if that had been the case?

The electoral delineations are still heavily rigged in favour of rural voters. The Election Commission couldn't re-do any of the lines without a two-thirds majority either.

In a country where rural votes are considerably worth less, I would not be surprised to see that as much 60 percent of the popular vote could have gone to Pakatan instead.

Said coalition thought that it was hotshot enough to win even with these utterly ridiculous delineations in place; I hope it can finally see that that's not the case. But with BN short of a two-thirds majority, they have no hope for a unilateral delineation either.

In order for Pakatan to have even a ghost of a chance at winning the next election, it must initiate and see through the unthinkable: a bipartisan parliamentary committee taking action to redelineate electoral constituencies for GE14.

This is significant for three reasons. Firstly, we have lost faith in the Parliament as a bipartisan community for decision-making, as seen by our knee-jerk responses to any major crisis.

If there is ever a neutral body meant to undertake and complete major bipartisan initiatives, it should be none other than the Parliament itself.

Secondly, it is this which will serve as the true test of democracy in this country. Of course someone had to lose this election. But will the moderates of Umno be willing to stand up and make their voices heard so that the next election will not be as contested as this one?

If they won't, we will simply have to remind them that we nearly denied them victory this time, and if we keep trying we eventually will.

Shifting, deepening faultline s

Thirdly, the fact that gerrymandering was probably the most significant reason for Pakatan's loss points to deepening faultlines.

The news will no doubt pounce upon Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's comment that BN's victory was marred by a "Chinese tsunami".

It was no such thing, as many Chinese as well as urban Malay voters made Pakatan their choice.

This should demonstrate, clear as day, that the faultlines in the Malaysian soul now lie with socioeconomic rather than racial lines and that faultlines are deepening.

I'm no political scientist, but it is my intuition that gerrymandering should only result in a party with 40% - 45% of the popular vote gaining the power to form government.

The urban Malays are starting to throw their lot in firmly with Pakatan. Meanwhile, the lower-income-group of all races (including a sizeable East Malaysian bloc) went to Barisan.

Thus, the vote is no longer a simple question of "Malay, Chinese, Indian or Other?" - and we, as citizens, must do our level best to strenuously avoid any such representation of the outcome, whether in the popular press, in the online sphere, or in our personal conversations.

We must remember this: PR, unlike MCA and Gerakan, never tried to appeal to the Chinese majority as Chinese, and kept Chinese impact-focus groups like Dong Jiao Zong at arms' length. Instead, they appealed to us as Malaysians, and we responded in kind.

Meanwhile, Umno tried to appeal to Malays as Malays, only to see the Malay vote split for its efforts, and the Indians - well, they are in the deepest confusion as Indians right now, to say nothing of East Malaysia, which just goes to show that this very method of identification is obsolete and quite possibly dangerous. It does us no favours.

Villagers need a wake up call

We have to see the divide at the heart of Malaysian society as a divide between urban and rural, between rich and poor.

There is actually a good neutral, moral argument for gerrymandering of the particular kind we have in Malaysia. In any case where there is a conflict of interest between urban and rural communities, who will win?

While the urbanites have more money and power and education and representation at their disposal, rural Malaysians, the argument might go, might benefit from few more politicians.

Were the government to spout that now, it could be feeding itself some self-gratifying accolades, just because. But it still is a valid argument now.

Pakatan, however, may care somewhat for the urban poor, but when it comes to helping the rural folk, they are lost. Of course, leaving the rural poor as an indentured vote bank suits BN just fine, too.

This leaves us, private citizens, with a responsibility. If neither government nor opposition will do anything for them, we must.

Remember how you were so alarmed at the state of the nation that you saw no other way out? It's our job to make that happen. Rural Malaysia needs to wake up.

Make it happen

In fact, just about nothing will get done unless we make it happen. Politicians, at their best, should be implementers of the public will.

Most of the time, however, we are far happier to be content in our little bubbles - and just moan and groan about things the government is supposed to do for us.

We forget that humanity existed before governments, not the other way around. When politics become a nasty zero-sum scuffle, the time comes for us to shine.

The BN may have formed the government, but we are still the people.

We can make a difference. We already have. Don't just think back to GE12 and lament on how slow progress has been.

Remember that we have had eleven electoral walkovers before this, and it is thanks to us that GE13 was not even one.

Remember that 80 percent electoral turnout, and reflect on the fact that it's a figure that some of the world's most mature democracies would envy.

We make the nation. If Parliament won't let us, we'll find our way around it, as the Bersih rallies have shown.

This is the second thing that as a citizen, you must do. Learn something - a skill, a subject, a language - anything, and if the only thing you end up being good at is talking - hey, you could join a political party and run for GE14!

And beyond all that, learn your neighbours, work together, and pool your shared cultures and knowledge and passion for a better Malaysia.

It is darkest before the sunrise - but only if you choose to rise for Malaysia.