IT'S NOT TOO LATE

 

It's not too late for Malaysia.  Sadly, for many our beautiful country is a failed state.  Wherever they look there is heartache.  Today is even worse with people dying from Covid and businesses coming to a grinding halt.  We used to hear of deserving students not getting the chance to study.  And outstanding ones being snapped up by our neighbours and other countries and they have gone on to excel to do our country proud just by being born here and nothing more than that.  Here is a country where corrupt leaders can still stand proud and hardworking, capable people have to cower in fear.

All this started a long time ago, about sixty years.  That was the time when our opposition leaders made all the wrong choices that led to the sad state of affairs today.  

THE FAILURE OF MCA

PKR was not born yet; only race-based parties like MCA, MIC, Gerakan and DAP were from the early days.  MIC is too small to be really significant.  MCA was a race-based Chinese party that gave up fighting for Chinese rights and chose to just pledge allegiance to the ruling Malay parties.  We do not know why exactly they made such a choice.  Probably they felt it was hopeless to fight against the Malay majority race, and they had a pact that goes back to pre-independence days.  (The same thing goes for MIC which many say is the mirror image of MCA for the Indians.)  Gerakan was roughly the same story, too.

The result of that choice is that for most of this country's history, MCA is branded the traitor and, running dog of the Chinese (running dog is the Chinese term for traitor).  The party was so hated that the last election saw them winning only one miserable seat in parliament.  The saddest part is that they may not have realised the error of their choice since the early days and will continue to pursue their proven path to failure.

DAP'S ELUSIVE DREAM

DAP had wonderful aspirations embodied in their slogans "Malaysian Malaysia" and "fighting corruption and abuse of power."  However, it is sad to note that after sixty years they have not progressed beyond their slogan which still remained just a slogan.  It's a party without any significant membership of the majority Malay race, thus making their slogan meaningless.  And they still have not realised that as long as they do not fight the root cause of the problems in Malaysia, that is, race and religion, they will never be able to realise their other noble slogan of "fighting corruption and abuse of power."  

Right from Day One they have surrendered their ideals of Malaysian Malaysia because they are convinced that they will never be able to attract Malay votes during elections, just as they are not able to attract Malay membership.  

As a result of such a defeated mindset they have to resort to the next best thing, that is, to find some Malay parties to partner with in order to get more political control of the country.  Such a terrible compromise saw them regularly landing themselves in compromising positions.  Their partnership with PAS was doomed from the start but their wrong choice from Day One made sure they did not see it that way.  Eventually they have to resign themselves and arrive at the correct conclusion that PAS will forever continue to pursue hudud and their efforts to sway PAS away from such a stand was indeed futile.  They then divorce themselves from PAS.  

They also tried getting Malay votes by partnering with PKR.  But they also did not realise that by doing so they would be getting themselves into situations that are totally beyond their control.  Anwar was convicted (rightly or wrongly) of sodomy and PKR was without their leader.  

Their last attempt to partner themselves with Malays was with their oldest political foe, Dr Mahathir, in the last election.  At first things seem to run smoothly and went according to plan.  However, Mahathir inevitably showed his old self which was the King of race and religion politics in Malaysia.  He got the non-Malays in the country so riled up that they placed unbearable pressure on DAP who had no choice but to keep pressuring him to pass the baton to Anwar.  His refusal to do so caused the temperature to rise above breaking point.  He resigned as prime minister and brought down the whole PH Cabinet together with him.  That has led to the PN government we are having today.

Has DAP learned anything?  I don't believe so.  They will not go back on their decision made on Day One, that is, to give up fighting against the majority race.  They will continue to look for "suitable" Malay leaders and Malay parties and align themselves behind them.  (Hey!  That sounds familiar.  Where have I heard it?  Oh yeah, that was MCA's strategy.)  It is obvious they have not heard about Einstein's advice, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

George Eliot gave us wonderful encouragement - It's never too late to become what we might have been.  And there's a wonderful clue in the Chinese proverb, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.  The second best time is now." It means we should start doing the right thing today.  We have no choice.  The alternative would be looking for another country to migrate to, because for many people this country is becoming unlivable by the day.  

Do we want to continue believing there is nothing we can do to change the situation?  Then we must not complain that the government has failed.  (They say we get the government we deserve.)  We must not complain that we would soon be dying of Covid at the rate things are going.  We must not complain that we are getting into a lot of debt and we are getting poorer by the day.  We must not complain that our children will suffer worse than us.  And we must not complain that in the event that we actually migrate we will be beaten up by other guys in a strange land.

Yes, there is something we can do about our beloved country.  But it must start with us.  It must start with a new belief in a new tomorrow.  And together as Malaysians we can rise up and overcome all the great problems we are facing right now.  And we can overcome the forces that brought about our situation today.  Remember the final advice of Tunku Abdul Rahman, "The power lies with the Rakyat."  Not the politicians and the political parties.  We the Rakyat have the power.  Tunku would be sad that we didn't listen to him.

Make no mistake; it is going to be an uphill task all the way starting from today.  Don't be surprised if it is as difficult as climbing Mount Everest.  Always remember, we are doing this for our children.  But rest assured when we are doing this together we will definitely succeed.  We will not only build a country that is free from all these problems.  We will actually build a country that is world-class.  A country that will attract all the Malaysians who have left for greener pastures elsewhere and are longing to come back.  A country that we all as Malaysians will eventually be proud of.