We will not come home to vote...but we are with you!

They may call us traitors to our own country. At times they tell us that Malaysia is better off if we stay wherever we are now - in London, Manchester, Moscow, Sydney, Paris or even Tokyo. For us Malays the vitriol is especially toxic because what we are today, they insist, is because of UMNO and their Ketuanan Melayu.

We are those who choose to live anywhere else but in Malaysia. We do so for various reasons but one thing unite us all – the search for a better life. Better then the one we left in Malaysia. Better then the one we have under an UMNO led Barisan Nasional and we hope an even better one for our children.

Our future is uncertain for we are Pendatangs in a different world, a different culture and a different mindset - but we are welcomed where we are! Nobody tells us that not being a Bumiputra will mean that we are not entitled to a discount when we want to buy a house nor will our children be discriminated against in education. Nobody tells us to write what our race, religion or even our gender is in any application forms we fill in. And nobody is remotely interested about your race or your religion in this new world that we are in.

So why, when we are thousands of kilometres away from Malaysia, why are we are still thinking of ‘home?’ Why are there activists amongst us that will disrupt Najib in London with shouts of “BERSIH?” Why are there many in Australia that plots the downfall of this UMNO led Barisan Nasional government? Why do we all want change?

We may be far away from ‘home’ but one thing this UMNO led Barisan Nasional government is not doing is to ignore us! They try their ‘charm offensive’ on us but they too quickly become offensive when we ignore their charms. We are told that “your country needs you” – what we say is that they should have thought about that many years ago before driving us out of our own country with their arrogance and haughty demeanour.

Today it is too late. We are settled in our new home. Our children even more. We have no wish to return home but we wish for a change in government for the betterment of our country and for the loved ones we left behind. They deserve better.

We will work towards that change in any way we can from where we are at now. In those good old days of two thirds majority in Parliament there was no need for a charm offensive to lure us back…..but times have changed! Today this UMNO led Barisan Nasional government is desperate for any help from any quarters to help them cross that 13th general election finishing line as victors. Whether they do or not is too close to call. This general election is unpredictable. At worse we hope for a hung parliament – at best Pakatan Rakyat in Putrajaya. Either way there is no place for Barisan Nasional. No place for UMNO! ABU!