Half a century after Merdeka
we are Nation without a soul. We are now a Nation much loved by its people but
yet posses within itself people with not much love for each other.
There is despair for we
know that we all await the time when all that matters to us – race, religion,
our livelihood, the education of our young and our increasingly uncertain
future – would all unravelled and caused us to fall deeper into the abyss which
awaits the fate of any Nation that fails itself. Fail to understand that any
Nation and its people will have weaknesses and vulnerabilities as well as
strength and character that it must draw upon if it is not to fall into that abyss.
Our strength has been and
will always be our people.
Wee are a young nation. The
British brought us to gather in numbers that we could not ignore. We had our
first baptism of fire during the Japanese occupation and then the Communist
insurgency. Then our coming together at Merdeka, the years of government under
TUNKU for which we have much to be grateful for, the May 13th
Incident and since then our people have been put through many trials and
tribulations,
I wish I could honestly say
that those trials and tribulations had brought us closer and bond us more
cohesively as one people, woven the fabric of our society more intimately and
made us into one indivisible Nation. It had not!
For various reasons, mostly
political, we have effectively now become a Nation of Malays, Chinese, Indians,
Ibans, Kadazans and others more than Malaysian!
We are now more divided as
Muslims, Christians and Hindus more than we were before.
As a people we are anything
but united in our loyalty to each other, to our leaders and of course, to our
Government and our Negara. The loyalty we pledge to our King is insulting to
our King because he knows he is powerless against a government that has been
the cause of our troubles.
And what are the troubles
we face?
Without any doubt
corruption is the root of all the evils found within our Nation. Almost
everything that is wrong in this Nation has its beginning from this tree of
corruption.
It begins as the root of
that tree starts life in the soil beneath us. Silently and hidden from our gaze
it spread its tentacles to take hold in the soil in its search for nourishment.
Like the fibrous roots of the Willow tree this root of corruption travels vast
lateral and vertical distance – more in spread than in depth – aggressively in
search for water sources – penetrating all that comes before it and destroying
the root of other trees.
And yet it is easily the
most beautiful and graceful of trees by any river banks.
And so it is with this UMNO
led Barisan Nasional government. What is hidden within itself is more insidious
and threatening to us all than what we can see of UMNO!
For the past five decades
and five years UMNO can point to us its numerous superficial achievements:
Putrajaya, The Petronas Twin
Towers, KLIA, KLCC, the numerous Infrastructures projects that links the North
with the South and the East with the West, Education systems whose success are
measured by astounding examination results, Universities of questionable
reputes, Malaysian astronauts in space, a seemingly powerful and all intrusive
Police Force, Malays who have become billionaires and a strong stable and all
powerful Federal government that until only recently, had totally dominated the
affairs of our Nation in Parliament and everywhere else that matters .
And yet all these
achievements, without exception, are the fruits borne by this tree of
corruption. All of these achievements are tainted. If success is to be measured
by what it had costs our Nation and our people in terms of opportunities lost,
national wealth expanded and benefits it had bought for the people in achieving
these successes than I can only say this. The Barisan Nasional government that
has presided over all these achievements and who claims to be the architect of
what our country has now become is today facing the real possibility of
electoral defeat at the 13th general elections.
It had already lost its
two-thirds majority in Parliament, lost five states to the opposition and lost
political credibility in the eyes of enough Malaysian to make it beg these same
Malaysians for another term in office.
And yet even as UMNO knows
that all these changes cannot be reversed UMNO still clings to the belief that
they know us better than we know ourselves! They think that they will decide
our sorry future and they continue to ignore the endurance of our people to be
able to face up to the havoc they have wrecked upon our politic, our people,
our nation and our future!
This Tree of Corruption
will die if UMNO stopped watering it!
And this UMNO will not do
because the death of that tree will also meant its own death. This is the
dilemma that we are now in for the Malays and for all of us that calls Malaysia
our home.
For me personally it means
that I cannot go home without the worry of being a ‘person of interest’ to the
special Branch. The same Special Branch that my late Father was once head of
while he was serving in Penang. There will be many of you that will tell me
that if I write what I do in my blog than I should be brave enough to face
whatever comes my way in KL. My answer is this. I am 65, I am comfortable here
in Oz and I live a better life here than if I were now to be in KL. Do you
think I would give all this up to go back to KL just to show this UMNO led
Barisan Nasional government that I am man enough to take whatever they throw my
way? Huh kiss my ass! And I am angry that this is so for me!
You should all get angry
too!
We know that what is
happening in our Nation today is proof positive that something different in
scope and kind is ebbing its way across our people and our Nation. We know
because the level of contact and communications amongst us, inconceivable
during the time of our parents, are now taken for granted.
On Saturday I received an
email from a dear friend who shared with me her difficulty and the futility of
trying make Nurrul and Anwar understand what needs to be done to reinforce our
(and I say ‘our’ because we are all together in Pakatan Rakyat!) our ability to
meet the challenges that UMNO throws at us on a daily basis.
I put her letter on to my
blog with some of my own comments and by Sunday evening my stats tells me that I
have had 450 page clicks on that posting. That is 450 of our friends now share
our concern on this matter. Some will agree and some will not – but we are
informed and we are aware of what is happening.
This is but one issue. All
the time, all over Malaysia, amongst all our friends, across race, religion and
gender divides these ‘conversations’ goes on unabated. If anything is to make
or break Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat it is this ability for all of us to
communicate our likes or dislikes, our support or opposition for what they do or do
not do! And they ignore this phenomena at their peril.
So all is not lost even if
UMNNO will not stop watering the tree of corruption! All is not lost if Pakatan
Rakyat does not yet hear what you say of them when you do so in the company of
friends. If the use and misuse of power by BN bothers you – put your thoughts
on the Net. If you think Pakatan Rakyat preoccupation is only to rule and not
to govern wisely go say that in your blog too. Both BN and Pakatan Rakyat will
hear your voices – if not now then in a little while, and they will understand
that our voices are to be heard and to be headed.
And now onwards to PUTRAJAYA!
No comments:
Post a Comment