Brave Front...

People say that as we grow older, we should grow wiser but of late that doesn’t seemed to be with the people governing our country. For many years now, I have always been at the forefront of writing articles or posting humorous satire in the social media that would be forthright and honest but now, there seemed to be a trend to “silence” the public and expression of thoughts by the people This curtailing of freedom of speech and thoughts are a dangerous path in a democratic or rather, an undemocratic country of ours. Surely there is a big difference between inciting the nation into a revolt and an honest heartfelt opinion by a “nobody” of the public. That’s what makes democracy such a unique stand. We agree to disagree on matters and we live in harmony as Malaysia is unique as we are a multiracial society. Some people in our country seemed to forget this fact! I can never stress enough for the saying “absolute power corrupts absolutely! “.

I dare say that everyone of us grew up with the tenets of our country tucked into our hearts and mind. The words of the tenets of Rukunegara will and always will be in our minds, hearts and souls. In fact, every child, men and women are conscious of the Rukunegara as they are all exposed to it as early as 4 years old while in kindergarten until the day they die, I guess. I don’t know about you but I grew up with friends from every layer of society recognizing that special difference in our pigmented skin and we are aptly called Malay, Chinese, Indian, Sikh, Iban, Kadazan and so on. There is NEVER a hint or stench of racism until the arrival of mega politicians, power grabbing , screw loose in the head politicians and religious bigots with big power grab ambitions, religious pariahnism and power greed. The level of respect, tolerant and well-being were at the highest level and still are especially with the right minded rakyats that understood that very unique fabric of respect, harmony and peace. Sure, we do have some stirrers of hate and racial disharmony but in general ( there will always be people like that in any society! ), people from all walks of life understands the meaning of respect, harmony and peace.   

I grew up respecting and getting the same level of respect from my friends of different race and creed. There must be sincerity and good will. Today, that rift of racial discord is ripped so far apart by these so-called brutes of politicians who doesn’t care one bit of what will ever happen to the rakyat as a whole. They continue to show discord and spew hatred and poison the minds of the people just so they could stay in power. Recently, mentality frame of people are so warped that even a simple Good Friday greeting can be such a stigma to some people.  Are we so weak in our religious beliefs that even a simple faith greeting will deviate us from our religious faith? Cowards is what I would call them. Stand on your feet and have some balls or else even the balls you are having will be chopped off or easily tucked in between your own legs! There is nothing shameful of standing on your faith because that is what makes us all human beings in the first place. I am reminded by a quote  by one of my late dad’s friend, Pakcik Mahmud who says “Without religion and faith, human beings are like wild animals in the jungle.” This is indeed so profound.  Distrusts, all sorts of threats, race supremacy, religious bigotry and social injustice have been the order of the day. I believe, many well minded Malaysian from all races and religious background are with me when I say “ PLEASE STOP DIVIDING THIS NATION!”

I am particularly irked with politicians and religious people who continue to spew false sense of security and mind invasion thoughts of conversion, political dominance, race championing and religion championing and so on. NO ONE in this country is contending against anything in this country! These are all political games and fear tactics to poison the people’s minds.  All of us knows where our places are. All of us do understand what is special privilege and no ONE is questioning that! Is the country any better when only one particular race is the governing body? In actual fact, no one made a noise if one particular race governs the country. The big question is and always will be : Are we any better than what we have been? The golden question of the citizens of this country : Is Malaysia getting any better economically & development, progress in the nation – morally, socially and spiritually and most important of all, are we safe?

We allowed the biggest scandals and corruption cases  in our country happened during our watch, people. Billions and millions of ringgits were siphoned off under the noses and pretext of development seed. OMG, the foul stench of corruption in terms of billions and millions are so rampant and blatant. We should be ashamed of ourselves that our country economy is in the doldrums. We should be ashamed to our children and children’s children. We allowed our sacred trust of the nation to robbers, thieves, corrupters and religious bigots to whitewash our country and bring our country to the forefront of world’s mockery. What a shameful state our beloved nation, Malaysia had become! Our country became the laughing stock and butt of jokes from every news station around the world! We are now world famous and renown for the different reasons nowadays. Our nation used to be the Tiger of South East Asia but today we are like stray pussy cat awaiting scraps thrown by rich owners of the region. Even Indonesia and Thailand, our nearby neighbours are moving towards a greater nation while we can only see the dust off our nearest neighbour, Singapore. Don’t get me wrong. I love our nation but we have fallen off the grid so far in terms of development and moving ahead with times. Instead, we are still fighting poverty, religious issues, unemployment, illegal immigrants and lately stupidity and more confusion when facing a global pandemic. It is embarrassing when our leaders falter time after time in speeches, actions and deeds and yet they still become “bodoh sombong” as my good friends used to say. We languished far down in development and in our economic sectors and yet, we conveniently say our economics are good and on track when even our neighbouring countries shunned down our currency while foreign investors are shying away from investing in our country economics citing political instability.  What a shame indeed!

It is just time for our leaders to wake up, stop bickering like little spoilt brats and get their ass off the chairs and start working……..properly. For far too long, we have ministers expansion in bodies & numbers for political reasons and strengthening but yet works are not done to benefit the people. Just look at all the confusing SOPs for the pandemic situation the country is facing and the laughable suggestions that all of this will go away with a drink of warm water! How the hell are the people going to get their business up and running with such confusing SOPs?  Even the fines implementations are equally moronic, nonsensical and double standard especially to the VIPs and the public in general. All this ought to anger the general public but surprisingly, the public had been cool, constraint and collected up till today. However, I believe a storm is brewing fast and thick when stupid implementation of fines and SOPs are further introduced.

Look, my dear government of the day and politicians, the public is NEVER your enemy. But if you continue to treat your rakyats as enemy, the consequences are so dire indeed. The public had awakened from their long slumber that the power to change the government of the day is in their hands by votes and by working together as one Malaysia and not by the manipulations of frog jumping, reward induced politicians and cross-overs. These jumpers generally don’t do well traditionally during the next coming election.  Yes, it would take 4 years of suffering but it can be done as times does flies these days, don’t they?

I am often reminded of what Mark Twain once said about government of the day. It goes like this : “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government , when it deserves it.”  I am definitely taking this stand!