Why BN Lost

The post-mortems, analyses, and dissections continue. The list of reasons for the "political tsunami" that washed away BN's power in 5 states are almost endless.

Among them: a relatively freer society under Badawi that has allowed dissent to flourish on the internet; Anwar's release from prison, also courtesy of Badawi; Badawi's weak leadership; reliance on bad advisors (who supposedly operate from "the fourth floor"); heavily favoring son-in-law Khairy, arguably the most hated person in the country; higher petrol, food and toll expenses; rising crime rates; the police's heavy-handedness in dealing with the Bersih and Hindraf rallies; and inheriting Mahathir's system of excessiveness.

The former-Opposition parties, DAP, PKR and PAS had rallies featuring crowd-pleasers like Anwar and Raja Petra Kamarudin; an anti-corruption agenda; a multi-racial platform; and an active anti-establishment blogging community.

But the main reason for their victory was for people like this:

...a voice in the crowd was overheard to have said: “It's not because I particularly liked anyone in the DAP or anything like that, but because we cannot stand anyone in BN that they (the former party) won. A dog could have stood for elections under their banner and we'd still pangkah it in.”

- From the Malaysian Insider, at the DAP supporters' gathering on the night Penang fell from BN's grasp.

At last, the silent majority had spoken.