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The opposition parties are in no enviable position either. They too face the same challenge and the expectation is higher on them to deliver. If they fail to ensure that the needs of the public, they too may be unceremoniously evicted.
While you may have read and analyzed the election outcomes from the political and social angles, let me approach from the viewpoint of management theories in an attempt to apply to politics.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs is founded in psychology, something that is very useful in management. The hierarchy is often presented as a stack of layers forming a triangle. The lowest levels of needs are at the base of the triangle while the highest need is at the apex.
The first four levels from the bottom are physiological, safety, love/sense of belonging/social needs, and safety. They are called deficiency needs. If the deficiency needs are not met, people get dissatisfied. However, if they are met, it does not mean that the people are fully satisfied either. It might just be "taken for granted". Nevertheless, it is clear that these needs must be met.
If we look back at the last 50 years, it seems quite obvious that the general priority was in meeting the deficiency needs. Nevertheless, there were shortcomings in specific areas.
The first and third needs, namely physiological and love/sense of belonging/social needs were not the major issues, although the non-Malays were feeling the pressures of alienation.
However, the second need, i.e., the safety need, seems to have become a major issue.
People began to face increasingly higher crime rates, unsolved crimes and financial insecurity. Considerable number of wealthy people and the wealth of many had left the country. All was not well with health and well-being. Poorly managed government hospitals seem to have resulted in private hospitals bleeding one's hard earned savings. People also began to get worried about Islamisation of what is constitutionally a secular country, “theft of bodies", and denial of estate to the family of the deceased on claims of sudden conversions at the deathbed. The brandishing of keris and the breaking of temples added further feelings of insecurity. The amending of laws to allow conversion of minors without parental consent and the use of strong arm tactics and the ISA against peaceful demonstrators together with the questionable murder charges framed against demonstrators made people more fearful of the regime. Safety is a need no democratic government can afford to ignore as it is certain that the resulting widespread discontent is bound to express itself somehow. On this account Barisan's performance was widely questioned. Instead of seeking ways to reassure the nation that this is a safe place for all communities to live peacefully, the powers up there went in reverse gear attempting to crush dissent. Hollow actions on the high profile corruption and murder cases, and the popular impression that courts are manipulated did not help to infuse a sense of security.
Barisan had also floundered on the fourth need. The need for self-esteem, self-respect and to respect others of the citizenry did not seem to matter. The Indian community received the worst treatment in this respect and all other communities woke up to seeing this. The implication is obvious. If it can be done to one section of the Malaysian community, what is there to stop extending the same treatment to others? After all, whether one realizes or not, all human beings descended from the same original source according to both theological and scientific views. So there has to be some element of common bonding still left somewhere in our genes.
Something else too has happened over the 50 years. It is the growth of the "growth needs", the remaining needs in Maslow's hierarchy that occupy the top most positions.
The growth needs include cognitive needs (learn, explore, discover and create), aesthetic needs (beautiful imagery, preservation of nature), and most importantly self-actualization. This last need implores humans to make most of their abilities and to strive to be the best they can. Here is where many of Malaysian elite and the most dynamic in the society felt greatly short-changed and felt suffocated. Avenues to further progress seem to have been strained. Licensing requirements popped up everywhere but if it had actually helped improve quality, people may have accepted. Again it was perceived as being hollow, not related to real issues pertaining to matters at hand, but only to serve toll collections. People began to feel threatened about the future and concern about the future for their future generations.The public complaints about corruption, nepotism, lack of transparency, deterioration in judiciary, lack of accountability, deteriorating quality of education, poor quality, marginalization etc went unheeded.
The growth needs are the enduring motivators of human behavior. Continuous effort is required in meeting the growth needs and it is something that is harder to satisfy. No government can afford to ignore the rise of growth needs. It is the mark of a civilized and progressive society.
However, with so much at stake, the very notion of a developed country comprising a happy nation and a well managed government by 2020 was increasingly perceived as a farce and an impossible dream
Basically, the Barisan government leaders seem not to have been responsive enough to meeting the safety, self-esteem and growth needs of the public in a systematic way. It appeared that they thought little beyond meeting physiological needs of people. There in lies their fallacy, In that sense it was a failure of leadership and strategy. Perhaps the punch line comes from paraphrasing Lingam. It looked like a government, sounded like a government but it was not a government It is hoped that from the lessons learnt, Barisan would seek to reinvent themselves in recognizing the unmet needs of all people and take remedial actions.
The opposition parties are in no enviable position either. They too face the same challenge and the expectation is higher on them to deliver. If they fail to ensure that the needs of the public are not met, they too may be unceremoniously evicted.
All in all, in this election the people are the victors. All political parties have been delivered the message to deliver, which means they are here to meet the needs of people.
Regards,
Sathia
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The Blogs 
Thank you for a most intelligent analysis, which sums up the insecurities I too feel.