An unforgettable evening

This morning as we were walking to the gym, Raj commented that I have not posted anything on Mei Phing's blog since New Year's eve. Yeah, I admitted rather sheepishly, and remarked that every time I posted some thing it was to remember Mei Phing and the tone was usually sad and depressing. Raj suggests writing some thing more cheerful or about an experience that has made a lasting impact. Ah, the general elections, I exclaimed.

On Sat. night, 8 Mar, I had some friends over to pop champaign just in case the Opposition parties turn in a better performance than in the 2004 general elections. Ah Fook showed up at 6pm, earlier that we expected, just as your mom and I were starting to prepare a simple dinner. Anyway, resourceful as we are, we managed to cook up a dinner for 4 when Seng Keong (our Dr Chua), a close friend of Ah Fook and Raj decided to skip his $100 per person dinner to join us.

By 8pm, our party has begun with Raj and Narissa, and Alex and wife popping the corks and munching pizza and tidbits. By 9pm, unconfirmed results from online Malaysiakini started what promised to be a night of shocking defeat for BN and a landslide win for the Opposition parties. Imagine sms were also flying in all directions from friends more than happy to share the results. I got one sms that said Pg chief minister Koh Su Koon OUT; indeed Penang was the first state to fall to the Opposition with DAP forming the state government. We almost woke up the neighborhood with echoes of `yum seng' or `cheers'!! As the night progressed, BN had lost 3 other states, Kedah, Perak and Selangor, and retained Kelantan with a bigger majority. Some of us who had contributed to the funding campaign for Dr Jeyakumar who stood against a seemingly invincible Samy Vellu felt vindicated as he won, even if by a slim majority. Another chorus of `cheers'; our voice hoarse by then. By midnight, the Malaysiakini website had jammed up unable to cope with the overwhelming demand. We had by then hooked up with Chean Shen who was also monitoring the results from UK. He was as excited as we were. Ah Fook, Alex and wife had left by midnight but the rest of us were still monitoring the results from the TV stations, and amused ourselves by making jokes at some dour-looking BN officials at the press conference. The final verdict was that BN nearly lost its two-thirds majority if not for help from Sabah and Sarawak. Never have you seen me so animated and awake at 3am! To sacrifice my sleep was all worth it; the results speak for themselves. And to cap it all, Liverpool beat Newcastle 3-0 in the wee hours of Sunday morning!