SELAMAT mengundi today to voters of all tribes, stripes and persuasions, young and old, seasoned or debutants, especially of the 18 to 20 column. Malaysians today will honour their supplicancy to a lofty democratic tenet — the secret electoral ballot.
By scribbling "X" in a small square, voters adjure to the fealty of the right to choose and the promise of a consequential future. The early-voting turnout on Nov 5 of 94.72 per cent, or a 212,961-voter spike, is an affirmation of this powerful privilege.
The volatility from 2018 to 2022, caused by Covid-19, court and ministerial clusters, a riveting hotel coup and backdoor horse trading, have come down to this 10-hour reckoning. Malaysians have finally regained control of electing their government, either to wring back an old administration or form a new entity.
But here's the paradoxical rub: the echo chamber of pollsters and punditry hypothesise that denouement of this evening's balloting is a "hung" Parliament: no coalition will cross the sacrosanct 112-seat threshold to dominate the Dewan Rakyat.
It's still a grab-fest for the handful of prime minister-designates, their people swaggering that one of them will lead the next administration. We'll know soon.
Here's the imperative: the next administration must confront the elephant in the room — reviving the economy is a supreme priority.
Economic growth by discrete tangents, injecting proverbial steroids and thinking laterally, anything to quell the doldrums; desperate people who lost companies, employment and income, diminished and devoured by the inflationary ogre.
Big businesses, boutique outfits and marquee mainstays mortify at their shrunken bottom line — some absorbable, others tanked — but corporations with strapping reputation have persuaded banks to walk through capital overdrafts to keep the front office open.
Small- and medium-scale industries, having been brutally trampled on, may foreclose faster than you can yelp e-hailing — the fortuitous safety net catching plunging executives and remodelling them into drivers/riders of the gig economy.
The post-Nov 19 administration has to be pragmatic in assignment of ministerial portfolios. Pragmatism may mean letting captains of industries anoint acclaimed experts to temporarily manage the financial and economic-based ministries, while the economy recovers inside an oxygen tent.
It's a stab hiring these turnaround artists, but if they can't do it, then who can? Of course, it needs strong political will, a tough call in the demands of utilitarian politics. Naturally, the new prime minister (PM) will be harassed by allies mewling for choice postings.
In that respect, the PM, without risking another collapse, has to buttress a working administration to quickly treat the economic canker — forfeiting the obligatory 100-day honeymoon. The nation will rally, no, beg the PM, to fix the malaise while tempering the bestiality of another political phantasm.
Once the economy is nurtured back to good health, his team of rivals can return to scrimmaging for who gets what. Perhaps then can tangible work be devoted to squelch, oh, two or so dozen problems bedevilling the nation.