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Very good on the election results. At least we have more balanced government. I thought I will never see this happen during my lifetime; well, I am glad that I was wrong. It is too early for celebrations. Let us see possible scenarios. What will happen?

(a) Will ‘someone’ plan to strike the fear into the people’s mind? Do we want to see what happened repeat? Like when 20 years ago when PBS won most of the seats in Sabah? Many of the shopping centres were bombed and when the re-election was held, PBS lost quite a few seats. Then they merged with BN and the bombings stopped. Not sure about the actual events that happened, but I smelt something fishy. If this happens again:

(i) Security of the nation will be under threat (at least for the few states involved). This will not help the economy.

(ii) Lives will be at stake. I believe Malaysians are peace-loving people, except for a few and these few are the ones having enough resources to shatter our peaceful lives.

(b) How well can the new state governments operate? Are we expected to see fewer more scandals, less corruption, etc? The future is still uncertain.

Also, I see that some of the new opposition leaders are planning to scrap the NEP. My view is this: the NEP is a good plan, but poorly executed. I would still go for the NEP if the execution is carried out diligently and without favouritism.

The life of a farmer in a rural area is tough and if we can do something to help them improve the harvest, prepare better infrastructure, etc, I am sure their lives will be better. The problem with the NEP is that it does not help such farmers much. Instead, it helped to create some very few individuals who became multi-millionaires almost overnight. You know what I mean.

I have been to lots of small towns in Malaysia. Let me share one of my travel experiences. I was in traveling to Mersing two years ago, passing by a small village. I cannot recall the name, but it is quite close to Mersing. That time, it was one to two weeks after Hari Raya Puasa.

I was riding my motorcycle along the road and there was a suddenly a heavy downpour. I was looking for a shelter when I spotted an old wooden hut by the roadside. There were some tables and chairs arranged, so I presumed it was a small eatery. When I stopped my bike and went to the tables, I was told that the place was not a food stall at all that day.

The locals were just having a small celebration for Hari Raya. The stall owner told me he had just invited fellow villagers for the celebration and since I was there, I might as well join in the celebrations.

I could see that their living standard was much lower than the city folks, but they still had the courtesy to provide me shelter and food - without any strings attached. By the way, I am a Chinese and that place was a Malay village. I have never seen this type of warmth anywhere in the cities.

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