Stirrings of Democracy

Something is happening in the Subang Jaya state constituency where I live. Middle and upper class Subang Jayans have traditionally peacefully voted for stability in previous general and state elections. They generally stayed out of public debate and on polling day quietly voted in the Barisan Nasional (BN), the leading coalition that has ruled the country for the past 50 years.

But a fresh-faced, pretty, pint-sized, just-married woman seems to be changing all that. Content Subang Jayans are spilling out of their comfortable homes by the thousands -- in the drenching rain -- to hear what the 29-year-old Hannah Yeoh Tseow Suan has to say.

She is the Democratic Action Party's (DAP -- the leading opposition party) new candidate for the Subang Jaya state seat. She is young, inexperienced and a newcomer to politics. She joined the DAP three months ago because she felt that it was the only political party that could help serve her desire to impact society.

Then the General Election was announced and she was asked by the DAP to stand in Subang Jaya. A political novice, this former headgirl and lawyer now turned event management professional is now pulling in the crowds and setting history in motion.

Yeoh herself can't believe the response she has been getting. "I didn't expect all this (the support)," she said, her hair still wet from the rain, after a huge rally in the rain soaked football field in USJ 12 on Monday night at which party supremo, Lim Kit Siang, spoke as well.

"This is history in the making. Party people say that this has never happened before," she added. By "this" she meant the crowds and the support that the people of Subang Jaya were showing her.

The DAP's political gatherings -- ceramah in Bahasa Malaysia -- are known to be crowd-pullers. People come to hear what they do not read or hear in the news. But, the crowds have always gone to the big names at the ceramah, like Lim, his son, Guan Eng, and Karpal Singh. No one -- least of all, Yeoh herself -- expected an unknown like herself to get the public's attention in Subang Jaya like she has been getting.

Her rally on Saturday night - also at the USJ 12 football field -- attracted about 6,000 people. The Monday night ceramah was bigger. A possible reason for the surge in numbers could be that more people came to hear the elder Lim. But if the Saturday night figure was anything to go by, it meant that she was as much a draw or a sign of change of something new and better.

One of my students who lives in Subang Jaya said that her father bought numbers based on Yeoh's first name, Hannah. He matched the letters of the name in the same order to the number on his touch-dial telephone. The number won and he shared the prize money with friends and relatives!

Yeoh might be a rallying point of something bigger than herself and of something new.

Subang Jayans want to give her a chance. At her rallies they listen. There is no heckling and she offers no gimmicks, antics nor entertainment, just her simple promise: "I will speak up for you. I will stand up for you."

They listen.

"People say I am young. Yes, I am young, but I am clean!" her strident voice rang out as she declared her commitment to stay corruption-free. She has vowed to search for all the "Zakarias" (the Klang councillor who built a mansion for him and his family in a poor neighbourhood) and expose them.

"People say I am inexperienced. Yes, but my hands are untied!" And she raised both hands in the air to show she was unshackled by political patronage. "My hands are tied!" is the never-ending lament of BN politicians who, caught up by the system, don't deliver.

"People say that I may not be able to work as well because I just got married (in January). But, I know of someone who is much bigger than me who also got married recently! Why don't they say the same about him?" she answered her detractors by alluding to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi who remarried last year! Yeoh is married to IT engineer, Ramachandran Muniandy.

Not only did Subang Jayans listen, they also gave generously. In another historical first, Yeoh's campaign officials collected RM31,000 from the Saturday night ceramah on March 1. It was the largest amount collected at any ceramah in DAP's history!

It is hard to say what is peaking the Subang Jaya electorate's interest in Yeoh. Perhaps, they are drawn to her out of curiosity because she is new and she is in the opposition. She is standing for election in a state constituency that was ably held by the Malaysian Chinese Party's (MCA -- a component party of the BN) three-term councillor Dato Lee Hwa Beng, who is now standing for election in the Kelana Jaya parliamentary constituency.

Now that Lee has moved on, Subang Jaya residents may be signalling a change. A change in the political equation. They may be ready to vote for a stronger opposition in the state assembly and they may be sizing up the new face the DAP has fielded in the Subang Jaya state constituency. And, maybe, they like what they see.

Against a lacklustre BN government tainted by the antics of its members and their relatives, Yeoh represents a breath of fresh air in a jaded administration that has gone scot-free for its excesses.

Like Subang Jaya, segments of the voting electorate have woken up and are looking for candidates in whom they can trust their votes and know that trust will be honoured. They may be willing to take the risk to deposit their trust in fresh new faces in the opposition and give them a chance at public service to provide the check and balances to the ruling party and deliver a just and fair government.

The opposition is realistic. They are aware that they do not have the support to form the next government. They just want to have more of themselves in Parliament and the state assemblies. After so many disappointments in previous elections, they dare not hope. But, seeing the groundswell in Subang Jaya, and, perhaps in other places as well, they are beginning to hope.

Subang Jaya is a state constituency, and the hope is that a vote for Hannah Yeoh will extend to a vote for the opposition in the parliamentary seats of Subang and Kelana Jaya as well.

It is in Parliament that a strong opposition is needed. In the words of the elder Lim at Yeoh's Monday night rally: "We don't want to smash UMNO (the leading political party in the BN coalition). But we want to smash UMNO's political hegemony!"

That is the clarion call of the opposition. To smash UMNO's unbridled supremacy by denying it its two-thirds majority in Parliament.

The concern is whether such a great turnout and generosity on the ground for opposition candidates like Yeoh will translate to real votes for the opposition on polling day this Saturday, March 8.

Historically, although people have flocked by the thousands to hear opposition leaders, the actual elected opposition Members of Parliament have always been less than one-third, which means the ruling government can -- and have -- steamroll any law through Parliament as they like it because they are assured of a two-thirds majority.

The question is, this time, at the 12the General Election of Malaysia, will the people hand the BN such unparalled and uncontrolled power or will they serve notice to the BN that their time is up? That their wings will be clipped? That they have to work hard to get the opposition's support to pass laws in Parliament? That they had better buck up or be voted out?!

What will we say at the polling station this Saturday? Will we maintain the status quo or will we make history and change the political quotient?

My own feelings? Let's make history!