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Malaysians in S’pore react with anger, disappointment over BN win

For many Malaysians in Singapore who stayed up late on Sunday night waiting for the results of the 2013 elections, anger and disappointment were the most commonly echoed sentiments when Barisan Nasional's narrow win was announced.
 
"We won't give up – I'm proud to be from Penang and we will stay strong despite all the dirty tricks," said online entrepreneur Gwendolyn Yeo, 30, who closely monitored the Facebook and online feeds of all her friends back home and was convinced that BN had not played a clean game.
 
"We're sick of our families back home working so hard to pay for (current Prime Minister) Najib Razak's wife's shopping sprees," said Yeo who was not able to make it home to vote but is a staunch supporter of opposition PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and cried when the results were out.
 
Anger over 'unclean play' by BN
 
Yahoo! Singapore spoke to 15 Malaysians based in Singapore, and out of that number, 13 believed that BN had not fought fairly and that the results were rigged.
 
On Sunday night, social media sites Facebook and Twitter were rife with allegations that BN had cheated its way into a narrow win by smuggling in boxes of false votes and concealing it by causing electric blackouts at voting stations where the party was lagging behind.
 
Citizen journalists also posted video clips of policemen allowing BN supporters past security but blocking those from the opposition. Another accusation was that BN brought in foreigners to vote illegally and tip the balance.
 
Singapore-based bank executive Nick Chong,  29, who took two days off to return to Kulai, Johor and volunteered as a polling and counting agent, told Yahoo! SG that he witnessed first hand how unfair the polling process had been.
 
"I thought there was a lot to be done as an agent supervising the polling process, but there was little that we could do to change it (to be fair). I hope that the unjustified as well as unfair result can be changed after the opposition leaders submit all the proof that we have."
 
"I'm really upset. We tried our best to stop the fake foreign voters from coming in, but when the blackout happened things got totally out of control. There weren't enough polling and counting agents, and many stations had no agents from the opposition to supervise the process."


 
‘We want justice’
 
"I ride (sic) over nine hours to get home with the traffic jam and even my motor(bike) breaking down, but I went home to vote because I am fed up with BN and I want things in my country to change, Ubah! (Change!)" said 27-year-old Malacca native Rajoo Rangarajan, who works as a cook in a five-star hotel in Singapore.  
 
"When we gave BN our vote last time (sic), they did not do anything for us. Our country only suffered under them. I am sad they won, but I think they are scared that we are not afraid of them anymore."
 
Only three spoke out in support of the badly-bloodied BN, which barely held on to its mandate among Malaysians. The ruling coalition won 133 parliamentary seats compared to 93 from Pakatan Rakyat to extend its 56-year rule. But news website Malaysian Insider estimates that BN lost the overall popular vote, garnering only 5.2 million votes compared to PR’s 5.4 million.
 
"At the end of the day, BN has the resources to make change happen, I think they have made mistakes but maybe the result will make them realise their errors and serve Malaysia better," said health products salesman Mohamed Esmail, 37, who works for a Singaporean company.  
 


Many Singapore-based Malaysians have taken to expressing their anger and dissatisfaction online, replacing their profile pictures with black squares in protest of the alleged blackouts used to cover up fake votes.

"I feel powerless as I am not in the country, but change can start from anywhere, even if we are just speaking up online, as long as we are not scared to put our name and our face to our feelings, I'm sure that we can make a difference," said Malaysian marketing manager Ivy Leo, 26, who, together with a group of her friends, booked a bus back to Johor on Saturday to vote for the opposition.

Related links:
Netizens react to GE13 results
Bloodied BN wins GE2013
Anwar cries foul over results