The voice of Malaysia in Dubai

Dubai: After Prime Minister Najeeb Razzaq’s victory, many Malaysians in Dubai are hoping their votes will result in progress.

While some Malaysians were looking forward to an era of change and new policies, others expected a continuation of the old government’s policies.

For the first time, Malaysians living abroad were given the chance to vote. Eddie Yuzaidee, a Malaysian expat living in Dubai, was happy that he could vote.

He said: “I hope Najeeb does his best and continues to get better because the opposition is very strong now.”

Mohammad Busri echoed Eddie’s opinion. He said: “I’m glad the opposition party is getting stronger, it is better to have two strong parties instead of just one. Although the opposition did not win, they got more seats, so there is a positive change.”

Noora Aziz, another resident, said: “I think these elections were transparent because we had representatives from two sides, both the government and the opposition.”

Conducting these elections was not an easy task. Busri shed light on one of the reasons for that, explaining that the media is heavily controlled in Malaysia, and therefore, people in rural areas, many of whom are IT illiterate, preferred to vote for the party that they’ve seen on television.

Generally, residents said they were satisfied with the results. Nevertheless, there were some people who were unaffected by the outcome.

Chef Awie, owner of a Malaysian restaurant in Dubai, said: “No matter who the winner is, I still have to do my job because anyway, they are all politicians and the citizen is not their priority.”

On a lighter note, he explained that if the claims about election fraud were proved right in the days to come, the people have five years to change Najeeb.

Media coverage of the elections stressed on the winning party’s extremely long period of service in the country. However, according to Noris Sulaiman, another Malaysian expat in Dubai, the time period does not matter because the current government has brought about economic improvement.

— Marina Makary is an intern at Gulf News