KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia’s long-governing coalition won national elections Sunday to extend its 56 years of unbroken rule, fending off the strongest opposition it has ever faced but exposing unresolved vulnerabilities in the process.

The Election Commission reported that Prime Minister Najib Razak’sNational Front coalition captured 124 of Malaysia’s 222parliamentary seats to win a majority Sunday. Opposition leaderAnwar Ibrahim’s three-party alliance seized 73 seats, and other races were too close to call.

It was the National Front’s 13th consecutive victory in general elections since independence from Britain in 1957. It faced its most unified challenge ever from an opposition that hoped to capitalize on allegations of arrogance, abuse of public funds and racial discrimination against the government.

Najib urged all Malaysians to accept his coalition’s victory. “We have to show to the world that we are a mature democracy,” he said.

“Despite the extent of the swing against us, (the National Front) did not fall,” he said in a nationally televised news conference.

Anwar signaled the opposition might dispute the results, saying “irregularities” cost his alliance numerous seats with narrow margins. Within minutes of the National Front’s declaration of victory, thousands of Malaysian opposition supporters replaced their Facebook profile photos with black boxes in a coordinated sign of dismay.

The Election Commission estimated more than 10 million voted for a record turnout of 80 percent of 13 million registered voters. They were also voting to fill vacancies in 12 of Malaysia’s 13 state legislatures.

Though it retained power, the National Front is weaker than it was at its peak in 2004, when it won 90 percent of Parliament’s seats, and it remained unclear whether it would improve upon the 135 seats it held in Parliament before it disbanded this month ahead of the vote. The coalition was anxious to secure a stronger five-year mandate and regain the two-thirds legislative majority that it held for years but lost in 2008.

Three well-known Cabinet ministers and at least one state chief minister were likely to lose their parliamentary seats. The Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-biggest party in the ruling coalition, saw many of its candidates defeated as Malaysia’s ethnic Chinese minority community continued to abandon the National Front.

A major difference between the ruling coalition and Anwar’s alliance are coalition affirmative-action policies that benefit the majority but often poor Malay population. Malay leaders in the National Front say those policies are still needed to help poorer Malays, but opposition critics say they’ve been abused to benefit mainly well-connected Malays, and that all underprivileged Malaysians should get help regardless of race.

Incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak has voiced confidence that the National Front coalition will remain Malaysia’s dominant political force despite facing its most unified opposition challenge since independence from Britain in 1957.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s three-party alliance hopes widespread grievances over how theNational Front has struggled with accusations of arrogance, abuse of public funds and racial discrimination will translate into a surge of votes to propel the opposition into power.

Tens of thousands of Malaysia’s 13.3 million registered voters lined up at schools and other voting centers Sunday to cast their ballots at the beginning of a 10-hour voting period.

Kwalampur, Malaysia: The recent attack on Nepalese by Malaysian local youths have brought the ugly face within the exotic tourist destination and also the inability of the Nepali government to safeguard its citizens in foreign nations.

Though that attack and some videos went viral on the internet, the Nepali government failed to take the issue with the Malaysian government even at the diplomatic level. The government would have demanded security for its nationals working in various sectors of the Malaysia, but the government subsided the issue.

Though the government has forgotten what its more than half million of Nepalese go through every day in Malaysia, here are some representative voices that speak out the life of Nepali who lives in fear and terror to save the money that he has earned through toils and even his life.

On an early February morning, Santa Gurung of Tanahun was robbed of his assists and seriously injured when he was heading with his friend to his factory. The robbers which came in motorcycles and trashed him and his friends and took away everything they had. Since then he fears to get out alone or even double.

See the video down showing footage of Malaysian gangs attacked Nepali and how inhumanly treated the injureds

“We were walking on the footpath. Suddenly some motorcycles came from behind and snatched everything we had,” Santa said adding, ” my friend was seriously injured when he tried to resist the robbers”.

Everyday lots of Nepali nationals are robbed in Malaysia by local gangsters and yet the local police administrations remains mute. With such insecurity, they are even worried to send the money which they earn after lot of toils. Malaysia is one of the cheapest foreign employment destinations for Nepalese workers.

“One cannot be assured unless you have deposited your pay in the Bank,” Basu Kafle, a resident of Morang, who has working here since 12 years said adding, ” you walk in terror until you get back to your hostel.” The statement is indicative of the terror that Nepalese workers have to go through.

Jeevan Gurung of Syangja, who has been working in Shah Alam, has many encounters with these robbers. Elaborating on his terrifying experiences, Gurung says,” Robbers use motorcycles and cars. Its impossible to differentiate good ones from robbers. They are like common locals.” Another Nepali from Jhapa and working here for the past seven years, Bijay Mishra adds that the robbers hide their number plates when they attack someone.

Even if one does not have money its not an easy escape. The robbers thrash such Nepalese scolding them for walking without cash and assists. “If they don’t get money, they injure by attacking with weapons. Sometimes they mutilate your organs and can render you handicap,” Padam Adhikari of Sunsari, who recently faced similar conditions said.

Adhikari has stopped going out alone nowadays. “We walk in groups nowadays,” he said adding that the robbers return back with bigger gangs if they try to resist their robbery attempts. ” Many friends are in hospitals after they were injured in the resisting attempts.”

Aanshu Chaudhary of Dang was robbed within his first month of entry in Malaysia. ” They called me to them. When I was in front them, they robbed me on knife-point. It was terrifying,” Chaudary said still shaking with that experience which says would have taken his life.

These robberies are targeted especially towards foreign workers. They don’t rob local citizens. The disturbing factor while agreed by many was said by Govind Khanal, a resident of Morgan district.

” They remain updated on the pay day of the foreign workers and pick out foreign workers,” Khanal said adding, ” our local colleagues are never robbed or touched by them.”

In the recent days some companies have provided ATM facilities and in-house payment facilities to their workers. But still most of the companies lack these facilities and have made Nepalese and foreigner workers more prone to attack from the Malaysian gangsters and robbers.

While the Malaysian police does not seems to be willing to engage with these robbers, the Nepali embassy also has remained mute spectator of the bloody hardships Nepalese are facing here.

A report run by Nepal’s leading News Channels taps in Nepalese in Malaysia to elaborate on the attack, which the Nepali government denied of being taken place.
 

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia’s prime minister dissolved Parliament on Wednesday to call for general elections that will be contested between a coalition that has ruled for nearly 57 years and a resurgent opposition whose pledge to form a cleaner government has resonated with millions of citizens.

The polls are widely expected within a month after Prime MinisterNajib Razak said in a nationally televised address that he had obtained royal consent from Malaysia’s constitutional monarch to dissolve Parliament immediately.

Najib used his speech to urge more than 13 million eligible voters in Malaysia to give his National Front coalition a strong mandate and to reject opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s three-party alliance.

“Do not gamble with the fate of our children and grandchildren,” Najib said, adding that he planned to travel to “all corners of the country” in the weeks ahead to speak to voters and win their confidence.

The Election Commission is expected to meet within a week to set a polling date and determine when formal campaigning can begin.The National Front’s current five-year mandate had been scheduled to end April 30.

At stake are 222 seats in Parliament and control of 12 of Malaysia’s 13 states. The National Front won 2008 elections with less than a two-thirds parliamentary majority, its poorest results in more than five decades of uninterrupted rule since independence from Britain in 1957.

Anwar’s office said he would make a statement in a news conference later Wednesday.

Najib marked exactly four years as prime minister Wednesday. He succeeded Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was pressured to step down after being blamed for weak leadership that contributed to the National Front’s 2008 electoral setback.

Anwar’s opposition alliance wrested control of several states five years ago by pledging to curb long-entrenched problems including corruption and racial discrimination.

Najib has intensified efforts to win back support with measures such as channeling more funds to the poor and abolishing security laws that were widely considered repressive.

Most analysts believe Najib’s coalition will still have the upper hand because of its support in predominantly rural constituencies that hold the key to a large number of Parliament’s seats.

But Anwar’s opposition still has a chance, said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, who heads the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, a Malaysian think tank.

“I don’t think (the opposition) will actually win, but the possibility is certainly bigger than before” in 2008, Wan Saiful said. “It will be a make-or-break election for Najib. If Najib doesn’t perform better than in 2008, what moral authority does he have to remain in power?”