“DO people really hate me that much?” two people heard Najib Razak say as the carnage of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) devastating losses became clearly apparent as the May 9 night wore on.

His advisers were huddled near him at his Langgak Duta residence, faces getting paler and grim as the results trickled in. Federal seats were falling like ten-pins in Sarawak, while the state legislatures in Johor, Malacca and Negri Sembilan seemed to go Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) way.

The two people who heard him mutter those words were silent. Words could not capture the depth of their feelings; the grief of losing had shocked them as the results streamed in.

“No one knew the extent of the anger against Najib and BN. I mean people did say they were going to vote for PH but we thought he could pull through,” one adviser told The Malaysian Insight.

It wasn’t like this when polling started that May 9 morning. Najib’s BN had never lost an election since his father formed it in 1974, while the predecessor Alliance’s victory stretched from the 1955 elections, two years before Malaya’s Merdeka.

The Najib administration was confident it would keep the government in the 222-seat federal parliament, even predicting that it might regain its two-thirds parliamentary super-majority that allows it to pass constitutional amendments without the opposition’s cooperation.

BN had the money, machinery and media behind it, as in previous elections, and believed that its political foes were in disarray, with Dr Mahathir Mohamad leading the PH pact that was forced to use the PKR logo as Bersatu was temporarily deregistered.

What could go wrong, a BN strategist told The Malaysian Insight, saying he was oblivious to the trouncing that happened that Wednesday. “We never saw it coming at all,” he said.

He was not the only one who did not see the devastating losses coming. BN’s array of well-paid strategists were confident of a huge win and inspired the top leadership to reassure jittery supporters that victory was theirs.

White roofed tents and marquees had been set up at Najib’s posh Langgak Duta private residence in a leafy cul-de-sac opposite Istana Negara for the victory celebrations. Congratulatory advertisements were set to roll in newspapers controlled by BN parties.

“Najib was sure of 133 seats at least, the same as in 2013,” one strategist said. Another said party deputy president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi reassured supporters on polling day that 142 seats were in the bag due to the big turnout that Wednesday.

It is learnt that even Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, had called the wives of some top leaders and confidently echoed her husband’s earlier assessment that 133 seats were in the bag. “She called at 11.30pm and said BN would win with 133 seats,” another strategist said.

But the win did not happen. And Najib did not make it to the Umno headquarters in the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), as was the custom of all winning party presidents. Instead, he stayed home, and senior party leaders silently made their way there to figure out the results.

“We were looking at big losses; Johor has fallen, Malacca has fallen, Negri, too,” said an Umno MP who lost his seat to PH. He had expected to win with a slim margin due to the large number of voters but was trounced by a more than 10,000-vote majority by his opponent.

Other top BN leaders had also lost by 9pm, including MCA president Liow Tiong Lai, MIC president Dr S. Subramaniam, Felda chief Shahrir Samad and Najib’s two lieutenants in Sabah, Salleh Said Keruak and Abdul Rahman Dahlan.

The delusion of a possible win despite the slew of defeats turned to despair as Dr Mahathir claimed victory just after midnight, despite the standstill in results announced by the widely derided Election Commission (EC).

Dr Mahathir had won for the sixth time in as many elections he has led, except this time, it was with PH and not BN. Najib remained silent through the night, with a spokesman saying a statement would come out in the morning.

The country’s sixth prime minister was still wondering about the depth of the hate and anger against him and his colleagues while his aides waited for the final results to plot their next move.

Meanwhile, others celebrated PH’s win. But the white marquees in Najib’s garden were dark and empty. The crowd had disappeared from PWTC and only a few had turned up at his residence.

And newspaper workers had to pull the pages of congratulatory advertisements for BN while editors tried to figure out acceptable headlines capturing the historic and seismic change of government on May 9. – May 28, 2018.