The American primaries with their electrifying contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are making many young Malaysians (especially the YouTube generation) feel distinctly under-served.  

We look at and listen to the youthful and energetic senator from Illinois, and wonder what has happened to our own ageing political class, some of whom have been “serving” us for well over two decades. 

Still, as a writer who’s been on an extended break (trying to make some money), maybe I’m guilty of misreading the national mood? 

Nonetheless, the return to column-writing is both exciting and a little worrying: exciting in that it gives me the opportunity to explore and analyse Malaysian politics once again and worrying because of the fact that I’ve been spending so much of my time abroad. 

However, you can never truly leave your homeland behind. It remains with you, embedded in your memories wherever you go – a haunting presence that acts as a counterpoint to everything you hear and see.

Malaysia's 12th general election will not be a cliff-hanger. This is not an epochal contest.

Still, the Barisan Nasional’s extraordinary majority (won in 2004) will be reduced. And, as befits an electoral contest led by the mild-mannered Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the issues will also be similarly low-key and understated though that doesn’t mean they aren’t important for Malaysia’s future.

Nonetheless, by March 9, as the Prime Minister surveys the results, his own position within Umno (especially if he wins back Kelantan) will be strengthened in anticipation of the long-awaited party polls at the end of the year.

To my mind, there are three important themes which have to be addressed in the upcoming polls; firstly, generational change; secondly, the demands arising from these changes and the pressures they’ll place on our political class; and finally, the Dr Mahathir Dilemma (which actually has nothing to do with the man himself).

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I've chosen to begin my election coverage in Selayang, a scrappy, racially mixed, lower to middle class commuter community some 18km to the north of Kuala Lumpur.

Selayang is not a political battleground. In 2004, the Barisan Nasional carried the seat with a majority of over 23,000.

However, with its two shopping malls (a Giant supermarket and a nearby Mydin department store), its brand new community college and its large district hospital, the town reflects the changes that have been taking place in much of Selangor over the past decades.

Indeed, communities like Selayang with their tremendous growth, are fast becoming a key testing ground for the Barisan’s power-sharing model as hundreds of thousands of people drawn from across the country settle down in ever-expanding suburbs.

At the same juncture a dysfunctional and barely accountable system of local government (the third and lowest tier) stuffed with political “hacks” tries to cope with this increasingly vocal and demanding population.

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