The Malaysian Pakatan Harapan opposition made history by ousting the incumbent Barisan Nasional ruling alliance at the 2018 Malaysia general election on May 9, 2018.

This means former primer minister Mahathir Mohamad and the opposition he led will form the next government.

In response to this unexpected victory, Singapore's politicians have written public statements on their Facebook pages in response to the the election result.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies, was among the first to share his thoughts in a Facebook post at around 8am.

Tharman shared a Channel NewsAsia article, "Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan pulls off shock victory at Malaysia general election@, and wrote an accompanying post.

In his 39-word post, he wrote that there was a "clear vote for change" in Malaysia.

His post was the only one among ministers here that highlight the diverse ethnicities of the voters, including the "Malays, Chinese, Indians and even the Dayaks in Sarawak."

Tharman also hoped that Singapore and Malaysia would "continue to work together for mutual good of our people."

Tan Chuan-Jin

Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin posted around an hour later at 9am, and called the election results "stunning."

He also stated that the Singapore government looks forward to "working with the new Government and leaders, and to continue to strengthen the friendship and cooperation between our two countries."

His 46-word post stood out as the only one to use two exclamation marks.

PM Lee Hsien Loong

At around 10am, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong posted a 120-word post -- the lengthiest post out of all the politicians.

Like Tharman, PM Lee acknowledged that this election result signalled a clear and major change in Malaysian politics.

PM Lee, however, focused on the prospect of future cooperation and developing bilateral relations in his second paragraph.

He stated that the Singapore government looks forward to "developing an equally constructive relationship with the next Malaysian government, and to work with it to take our bilateral ties forward and benefit both our peoples."

Vivian Balakrishnan

Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, shared PM Lee's post at around 11am this morning.

In his post, he did not add to PM Lee's post, but instead highlighted some portions of it that pertained to Singapore's bilateral relations with Malaysia.

Given his position as Minister for Foreign Affairs, his interest in future Malaysia-Singapore bilateral relations is expected.

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All hoped for future cooperation

At this stage, it is still unclear who will become Malaysia's next prime minister as it has not been decided.

While all four Facebook posts did not mention any specific political leaders, a consistent theme was the hope for our government to work closely with the new Malaysian government.

Given that Malaysia is a close neighbour of ours, their stability and prosperity would inevitably have consequences for Singapore.

Top photo from Facebook