Malaysians have made their choices and have demonstrated to the world the power of democracy. We can’t tell now whether the eventuality is going to be something sweet or bitter, but what we know is that we will have to live with that for the next five years.

A month ago, Ahmad Zahid did all he could to pressure the prime minister to dissolve the parliament to pave way for fresh elections in the hope of bringing his coalition Barisan Nasional back to the center of the country’s political stage.

He successfully brought about an election, but the outcome was not what he wanted.

The domino effect starts from Arau in the far north all the way down to the southern gateway of Johor Bahru. BN is suffering from a much bigger defeat than what they did four years ago.

Meanwhile, PN is like a vote-gobbling monster that sucks a large part of Malay votes. BN’s traditional vote bank is eroded by PN, or PAS to be exact.

PN is also making a clean sweep in the east coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu, and a near-clean sweep in Perlis, Kedah and Pahang.

PAS emerges as the real backbone of the PN coalition, with Bersatu now reduced to just a tributary.

Such a phenomenon has brought out a message: the marriage of PAS’ theocratic politics and Bersatu’s extreme rightist nationalism has now become the mainstream of the Malay society, its influences rapidly spreading across this country.

In the meantime, Pakatan Harapan has swept across many urban and non-Malay constituencies, with DAP winning by a landslide in Chinese-majority constituencies and PKR making headway in urban mixed constituencies. Finally, PH’s supporters have squared things off for the infamous Sheraton Move, giving the coalition new hopes of a regeneration.

PH’s performance this time pales compared to the last election. It managed to win 113 seats to form a government with a simple majority in 2018. Although it still commands the largest number of seats in parliament, that is not enough for it to rule on its own.

PN’s rise is established largely on the failure of BN, and BN’s failure can be largely attributed to its chairman Ahmad Zahid’s ignorance and arrogance, pushing Umno down the cliff.

Ahmad Zahid’s existence is a liability to BN, someone few Malaysians would cheer. Unfortunately, he failed to wake up to this reality, forcing a general election when BN was not properly prepared to fight the war. He obstinately put his confidants in the candidates’ list, and announced BN’s election campaign without the blessing from other component parties.

Owing to poor preparations, BN’s election machinery could not be effectively deployed. Because of imprudent appointment of candidates, a rift has emerged within Umno. And as he announced the election manifesto on his own, he marginalized Ismail Sabri, and this shows that he wanted to be PM himself.

The Malay society has been unhappy with Umno for quite some time, and what Ahmad Zahid did robbed them of any hope they could pin on the party.

Umno’s collapse did not start with Ahmad Zahid, but the party’s overall decline. 60 years of hegemony have given rise to systemic corruption. The regime’s fall in 2018 failed to serve as a wake-up call for the party as it continued to whitewash its iniquities and evade its responsibilities. The Court Cluster’s desire to exploit the party’s political power to make a comeback has further irked the Malaysian public.

In the past, even as the Malay society was unhappy with BN, they did not trust PH, and would therefore continue to support BN. The emergence of PN, with its blend of nationalism and religionism, has given them a new ray of hope and prompted them to vote for PN.

BN only has itself to blame for its thumping defeat. It has perpetually been living in its own fantasy of a landslide win having won the state elections in Melaka and Johor, failing to realize that the victory was also a trap in disguise.

The outcome shows that the Malays are now leaning towards PN while the Chinese cling onto PH, putting these two camps on opposing ends of the country’s political spectrum and further aggravating the division between the Malay and Chinese societies.

PN’s religious ethnicism meets with strong resistance from the local Chinese community, while PH’s secular advocacy and plurality have alarmed the Malay society, pushing the two communities further and further apart. This is going to be a very serious problem the country will have to deal with in future.

Sadly and shockingly, this election has witnessed the fall of some new generation Malay political elites, including Nurul Izzah Anwar in Permatang Pauh, Khairy Jamaluddin in Sungai Buloh, Tengku Zafrul in Kuala Selangor and Shahril Sufian Hamdan in Alor Gajah.

These are all moderate, liberal, farsighted and capable young leaders who have been obliterated because of the ideological insistence of the electorate.

With the Malay electorate rejecting Nurul Izzah and the Chinese resist Khairy Jamaluddin, we begin to wonder which way the country’s politics will head to in future.

Indeed, the Malaysian parliament is fragmented after the election and a hung parliament will very likely be the consequence. We will have to see how these people are going to put up a stable joint government.

PH wins the largest number of seats and by right should be given the priority in the formation of the new government. The thing is, can it get GPS and BN to its side?

Sure enough PN is not going to give up hope to form the new government, and will very naturally seek to get BN’s and GPS’ nod.

These past few days have seen what we call in politics the horse-trading phase: bargaining and swapping of interests.

While the anti-hopping law can stop individual politicians from defecting to a different party, it nevertheless allows political deals between entire political camps or parties so that a new government could get established. Of course, we have no idea about the details of their deals.

As for the country’s next prime minister, he will very likely be either Anwar Ibrahim or Muhyiddin Yassin.

And once again, the King will have to shoulder a tremendous responsibility of appointing a new administration and prime minister. His Majesty’s role will become unusually crucial in the event no one can cross the threshold.

Malaysians have made their choices and have demonstrated to the world the power of democracy. We can’t tell now whether the eventuality is going to be something sweet or bitter, but what we know is that we will have to live with that for the next five years.