Has It Just Been A Month?

A month ago today Malaysians voted in the country's twelfth general elections.

A month ago today, I was sitting in a classroom in a school in the Klang Valley watching voters trickle in to cast their votes, bantering with the polling clerks, trying to ignore my bladder and the fact that the plastic chair was killing my lower back. That was 4.15pm. Forty-five minutes more, that was all we could think of, 45 interminable minutes before the polls closed. One hour and 15 minutes before the counting of the votes would begin. At some point during the afternoon, my newly-met associate leaned over and swore in an undertone that she would never, ever volunteer to be a polling agent again.

I bet she changed her mind when the counting began.

A month ago today, I woke up at the crack of dawn, took a shower, had breakfast, briefed the maid, packed my basket with a bottle of water, torchlight, notebook and the Folder. Then I took a bracing walk to the polling station where I would cast my vote. Then I drove to my parents house to pick them up to take them to their polling station. While waiting for them I drove down to their neighbourhood newsagent to get new batteries for my torchlight. When my parents were done, I headed home, ate a quick lunch and then headed out to the school in the Klang Valley where I would assume duties as a polling agent/counting agent or PACA (pronounced pa-cha, don't ask my why).

A month ago today, I sat in that classroom in the school in the Klang Valley watching intently as the polling agents counted the votes and within an hour, I knew that the PKR challenger had received more votes than the BN incumbent in the polling stream I was observing. A few minutes later, I knew that she had won more votes in that polling station.

A month ago today, I knew that I had been a part of something historical. Sitting down in a neighbourhood restaurant with my family for a late dinner, we had friends calling and texting us with the latest results and reactions. (The funniest, most poignant reaction came from A's best friend's mother who fell to the ground overcome by joy when she heard that the MIC president had lost his seat.) And it carried on all night long as we shared our information through the Internet and via our mobile phones because the television stations were paralysed by their uncertainty about how to report the rout of the Barisan Nasional (National Front).

A month ago today, it seems as though everything changed.

A month ago. Has it just been a month?