The following are some of the comments found online in response to the Home Minister’s absurd statement.
Onyourtoes: Home Minister Zahid Hamidi, please listen good. In the first place, the electoral system that we have today is not as stipulated in our original constitution. It is a system that has been manipulated by your party during the past five decades.
So please don’t ever say the opposition has no respect of the country’s electoral system. But you are right if you say we have zero respect for the system that your party has currently put in place because it was not based on ‘one man, one vote’ system.
It violates the very essence of parliamentary democracy where even if rural constituencies are given higher weightage, such an advantage should not be so excessive.
It is our right to continue to agitate for change. It is up to you to listen or not to listen. But if you can’t stand our ranting anymore, I suggest you resign and take a break in Timbuktu or elsewhere.
Please don’t ask us to migrate; this is not your country alone.
Apa Nama: Zahid, the ‘first past the post’ is not the fault here. It’s the way BN has implemented it.
BN did not follow the original delineation whereby the difference between two constituencies should be no more that 20 percent as far as population is concerned.
Later BN amended to 50 percent and now even some parliamentary constituencies have about 20,000 voters while others have 140,000. This is what we dispute – the skewing of the results by BN.
Starr: How diabolical for a senior minister in PM Najib Razak’s cabinet to make such a statement – to encourage Malaysians to emigrate if they are not happy with the May 5 general election results.
New Home Minister Zahid Hamidi is indeed disappointing to have written such a statement, bringing the integrity of Najib’s new cabinet into question.
Zahid would do well to read the will of the rakyat as reflected in the election results, for the rakyat have indeed spoken.
For Umno-BN to secure the government with a minority popular vote is in itself a fraud by way of tampering of electoral boundaries through gerrymandering.
Rampant legalising illegals and enrolling them as voters is another damning indictment of electoral fraud.
Reformasi: Dear Home Minister, GE13 is over. Many of us are not happy with the results. We have a right to express how we feel, as you have a right to express your views too.
But incumbent upon you as a minister, your views have to be expressed with responsibility, temperance and moderation. To tell people to migrate if they are not happy with the election results is akin to bringing yourself down to the level of dirty, divisive and destructive politics.
You are a minister and a national leader. National healing, reconciliation and seeking a common ground based on respect and peaceful co-existence with those of differing views should be yours (and your cabinet colleagues) top priority now.
This is my country as it is yours.
Citizen Peter: I won’t migrate because this is my only home. I won’t migrate because Malaysia is a wonderful country and Najib, Zahid and their Umnoputra gang are the main destroyers of this Eden.
We must stay to get them out before they do more harm to this country. I love Malaysia. As a medical practitioner, I work very hard to serve my patients, and I never take anything that belongs to the people.
I am loyal to the constitution – the original one by our founding fathers before Umno and gang made it into a piece of playdough. Zahid, do you dare tell the kampung folks how many times BN has changed the constitution to suit itself?
Sali Tambap: What Home Minister Zahid Hamidi says is ironically prophetic. There are many Malaysians considering migrating if they can, not because they do not love Malaysia but because they cannot stand this regime.
That’s the primarily reason for Malaysians wanting to get out of country. They will come back after a change of the government, if that ever happen.
God did not make this land for Umno only. All of us – and I say, all of us – have equal share and right to this land, not just Zahid, not just Umno.
Lamborghini: It is precisely because of insensitive, immature statements and actions by arrogant Umno politicians like these that are driving the educated and knowledgeable rakyat away from Umno-BN.
While PM Najib Razak is preaching reconciliation, his henchmen like Zahid is preaching “go somewhere else if you don’t like this system”.
It certainly is a bad start for this new “transformational” cabinet if you have old dinosaurs like Zahid holding a vital position such as home minister.
Changeagent: Zahid, you are an idiot. It’s not the ‘first past the post’ system that we are disputing.
It’s the gerrymandering by the Election Commission (EC), postal votes by public servants, foreign voters with instant ICs (identity cards) and indelible ink that isn’t indelible that the people are unhappy about.
Besides, there is absolutely no precedent in other Commonwealth countries that people who are unhappy with their election results must “migrate elsewhere”.
Your absurdity and ridiculousness for even suggesting this raises serious questions about whether you are fit to hold the post of the home minister.
Tehachapi: Only ignorant feudal lords full of themselves talk like this in public. Zahid is a serious menace to the civility of this country.
Is Malaysia aspiring to become a developed country and joining the ranks of other civilised nations by 2020, or is it going back in time to the dark ages when witchcraft and sorcery were considered as professional practices.
Clearly, the country is now led by a lot of empty vessels with nothing else to show but a lot of hot air. They neither have vision, nor capabilities, nor knowledge and passion beyond committing fraud and hanging on to power by the skin of their teeth to enrich themselves and its cronies through blatant and shameless corruption and embezzlement of public funds.
Yes, so long as there are oil and gas in the ground, the country can go on for quite a while before the final collapse. It is totally wrong to think that you can chase your fellow citizens elsewhere so that you can continue your looting.
Links to more of what Malaysians say:
Migrate, Zahid tells those unhappy with GE13 results
It’s the gerrymandering, stupid
New home minister wants 51pct to find new home
Malays are migrating – from Umno to Pakatan
‘Arrogant calls like Zahid’s turned voters against BN’