As a Malaysian, this win is so amazing. Literally against all odds. I’ve never been more proud of my fellow Malaysians.<p>Najib had control of the Election Comission, Registry of Socieities, Attorney General, Inspector General of Police, and his own political party.<p>With this power he shamelessly gerrymandered, deregistered the opposition coalition, appointed someone to proclaim him innocent in 1MDB investigations, locked up the opposition leader, and sacked critics within his own party including the deputy prime minister and a VP.<p>Then there was also the EC who set voting date on possibly the most inconvenient date, new laws to bar advertising of the opposition prime minister candidate’s face, the Sultan who spoke out against the opposition and the Agong who stripped some opposition leaders of titles.<p>This is indeed a historic moment.
As somebody who frequented Malaysia extensively in the first half of the 2000s (in the aftermath of the ruinous 1997 currency crisis) I’m very curious to see how the dynamic between Mahathir and Anwar plays out: the latter was a member of the former’s government during the crisis and the former had the latter jailed on what were wildly held to be trumped-up sodomy charges (as the article mentions). This is going to be a very awkward working relationship.
What a surprise. I was certain that when Najib Razak will be cornered, he would've resorted to election rigging.<p>Looks like his rating tanked so hard, that even foul play on a level available to him did not gained much for him.<p>Congratulating Malaysian people.
I don’t understand the spin. The article doesn’t mention that he was prime minister for more than 20 years previously until halfway through.<p>By most accounts a decent prime minister. But also a virulent anti-Semite: <a href="http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp506.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp506.htm</a>
If any Malaysians can answer:
Recently Malaysia has been in news for increased religious extremism/fundamentalism. Can any improvement on this front be expected by the new government?