Was voting for Harapan the one stop solution for all problems?

COMMENT | I am slightly worried about how the democratic system in Malaysia is going recently. It’s not so much the fact that there is a new government in the form of Pakatan Harapan. That is a good thing and May 9 will always be a special day in Malaysian history. That is a given and we have to realise the significance.

However, it may seem like there is a problem with this new democracy that we have attained. Firstly, I think many Malaysians are too naive and have a warped perception of the fact that a change is going to solve everything. They need to realise that voting for Harapan is just a step towards change and not a total change by itself.

What I mean by this is that so many voters have the naive and idealistic notion that Harapan will stand for all the changes they want to happen in Malaysia. It is most probably because they have never had a chance to see that their hope can be a reality.

Now that change has been proven to be possible, all the change in the world that we have hope for is thrust upon this one coalition. It would almost seem like we have elected Jesus as the prime minister (oh sorry, maybe I should have said Muhammad, but then I might be labelled blasphemous!).

Was everyone expecting that a political party is going to address everything in their manifesto, let alone every problem under the sky? Sure, they will prioritise the sexy issues like 1MDB and GST. But what about the lesser profile issues like teachers’ administration work or, God forbid, sensitive issues like gender equality or the LGBTQ community?...