The Hills have Ayes

Technorati tags: Politics, April 7, Commentary

Updated @ 1626hrs: Walski decided that since some of you just might enjoy more in-depth analysis, as compared to his over-condensed simplified version, he’s provided a short list of selected stuff from the bloggerhood (in the full post).

Original Post:
April 7th 2009 has come and gone. The results?

The traffic sign says it all...

For BN, it was a good news, terrible news kind of day. They retained Batang Ai, but didn’t manage to grab either the Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat, or the Bukit Selambau state seat.

A 2-1 score for Pakatan Rakyat. Or, as Utusan preferred to state it: BN 1, PAS 1, PKR 1. Respectable result for PR, to say the least. But for BN, not what newly minted Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak would have wanted.

So, did April 7th come any closer to answering the so-called TAO Referendum? 
(what April 7 meant to Walski, and more, in the full post)

Well, not quite. Not to Walski anyways.

First off, he’s never considered Batang Ai to be about TAO to begin with. It was more about native land rights, and the rights of the Sarawak indigenous people, under the long rule of BN-related PBB, transcending TAO, and has little to do with national level politics, per se. So, if anyone were to have been red-faced had BN lost, it would’ve been Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. End of story.

Different case with the two hills over on the Peninsular side. If anything, it was a clear referendum against Barisan Nasional, and not any one particular individual. Particularly when it came to Bukit Gantang.

And Bukit Gantang, perhaps, came closest to a message for TAO – the people of Perak are not the slightest bit amused with the ousting of their rightfully elected Menteri Besar. It goes to follow that since TAO was the mastermind behind the move to unseat PR in PeRak… well, you fill in the rest.

Yesterday, April 7th, will undoubtedly be analyzed to death by all and sundry. What is clear to Walski is that Pakatan Rakyat is gaining the momentum of support from the Peninsular side of the equation. And sometimes it’s the simple explanations that tell a bigger story.

What will undoubtedly be more interesting is the Cabinet of TAO, which is expected to be announce sometime today soon. Like, will the cabinet be as big as TAO’s predecessor, or will it be more ergonomically efficient in size?

And Walski would rather save some energy, because that piece of household furniture (the cabinet, that is) deserves more analysis and attention.

He awaits the unveiling with bated breath… but not bated enough to forego lunch. Which is where Walski is off to now…

Until later, peeps!

Update: Since some of you might actually want April 7th analyzed to death, Walski figured he’d do a wee bit of public service and list down some of the more readable analysis posts that he’s come across today (in no particular order):

• The People's Parliament – Reform, or face extinction
• Aisehman – Ain’t No Bukit High Enough & Loss For Words 
• ARTiculations – The People Have Spoken
• Magick River – Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad :-)
• Ktemoc Konsiders – No ketupat in Selambau & Buses of phantom voters with water bottles
• Zorro-Unmasked – Syabas PAS & Sir, Time to take back Perak
• Screenshots – Bukit Gantang... Good for New Malaysia & Bukit Gantang... Nizar could have won much higher

There are undoubtedly a whole load of others out there in the bloggerhood who have something to say about April 7th, but these should be enough for you to chew on for a while. Still not enough? Well, go look for some more yourself, then (via Google Blog Search).

Walski’s horror movie inspired post title footnote:
Movie buffs will very likely recognize immediately that the post title is a play on Wes Craven’s “The Hills Have Eyes”, which is perhaps one of the better horror flicks to be released in recent years. Compared to all those remakes that we’ve been seeing of late, naturally – there’s only so many times that Jason Voorhees can be resurrected and still be fun to watch.

And seriously, nothing beats an entertaining evening of watching mutated humans going on a killing rampage, totally obliterating entire families while on vacation. Granted, when shown on Astro, most of the butchering was done by the satellite TV station.

Hasn’t it occurred to anyone in the government that censorship is perhaps one reason why piracy of films is tolerated?