This is interesting. First time I've followed the national elections like I was watching a Spurs football match gamecast.

MalaysiaKini.com's sites must be jam-packed with surfers seeking to get the latest. Because the reporting of the elections by Malaysian television sucks worse than Rio Ferdinand's goal-keeping skills (and even then it's not really his fault that he, a defender, had to take the place of Man Utd goalie who was sent off for obstructing Milan Barros from scoring).

TV3's pseudo-political commentary was shallow, even by my sub-par understanding of Malaysian politics. The commentator was talking about how the Opposition's victories were due to them fanning the flames of racial tension. The guy - a professor in one of Malaysia's universities, so 'dynamically' ranked in the world (smile) - said that the people voted for the DAP, a mainly Chinese party, because they were primarily against UMNO, a Malay party.

But isn't the DAP part of an alliance which includes Malay-based parties like PKR and PAS? Oh, but the overall Malay representation is still low.

But what about UMNO's partners, the MCA, MIC, etc? Don't they represent non-Malay interests and wouldn't the Barisan National's defeat mean that it's not mainly a racial thing? Oh, but UMNO is the main fish in the BN pond, so Opposition victories must be about being against Malays.

This is not very encouraging, said the commentator. This is very anachronistic, he said.

And that's when I wished the mamak shop would switch to Liverpool vs Newcastle (smile).