Antara Kelahiran dan Pilihanraya.

Around 11pm I received a phone call from my significant other telling me that my sister just gave birth to a girl – after more than 48 hours of labour pain. I did not call my sister straight away as it would be stupid to try to call someone who just spent the last few hours giving birth to a baby. When I woke up the next morning, I received a picture message from my sister – a picture of my third niece (her second daughter and third child). She does not have a name yet as my sister and her husband was not prepared for the baby girl. Apparently, they were expecting a boy and not because the scan went wrong but because they did not scan for the baby’s gender in the first place. Which is a cool thing, since there was some element of surprise when the baby finally came out around 3am in the morning, Malaysia time. Anyway, I just want to say congratulations to my sister and brother-in-law for the newborn daughter.

On a very different matter, as expected, Pak Lah announced the dissolution of the Parliament today afternoon, which means the General Election could be held as early as the 1 March 2008. I would expect the election to be in March since Pak Lah has a thing for the number three. I do not want to speculate on how the results might be but I think I would find this election very interesting for two very different reasons. Firstly, this will be the first election that I will be watching from outside Malaysia. Secondly, this will be the first election ever that the leader of the governing party already conceded that the Barisan Nasional would not win with a landslide victory. Although, I must say that the government had faced tougher General Elections in the past and came out of it almost – read almost – unscathed. I just hope that Malaysians will vote with their conscience and vote for the right people.