mahnmut | Political earthquake in Malaysia

"Near-total government control over Malaysia's broadcast and print media, restrictions on public protests, and wide-ranging security powers historically used to jail opposition activists have long helped ensure electoral victories for the National Front. The government's longstanding two-thirds majority in Parliament has also allowed it to amend the country's constitution at will and to alter electoral constituencies to favor coalition incumbents. Until this weekend's election, the National Front held more than 90% of federal Parliament seats and ran 12 of 13 state administrations.

But the spread of uncensored new media, such as the Internet and cellphone text messaging, helped opposition parties break the government's stranglehold on information flow, harnessing public anger over mounting inflation, widespread corruption and inept governance. Combined with rising resentment by ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities over affirmative-action policies designed to benefit the country's Muslim ethnic Malay majority, this anger coalesced into a perfect storm of protest against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government."

Question is, what parallels could we spot between the Malaysian situation and the ANC-dominated politics of South Africa? And, is a similar moment coming anytime soon to SA? And, after all, if so, would it be a good thing for democracy in this country, or the opposite?