Why our country is the way it is

For the vast majority of Malaysians, the future is grim as the Umno-led BN government continues to do what it thinks it should do to get the votes in the 13th general election.

COMMENT

Many Malays now understand that Ketuanan Melayu also takes from the non-Malays the opportunities of an education for their children so that the children of Malays can have them.

Ketuanan Melayu deprives the father of these non-Malay children of jobs and business opportunities so that Malays could have them.

These non-Malays who are being deprived of education and job opportunities are our neighbours, our acquaintances, our friends and all call Malaysia their home.

How can I look them in the eye and say that Ketuanan Melayu allows me to do all this?

And this is why our country is the way it is.

The mass of poverty and the economic difficulties of making ends meet that our people now live in is more than that of many decades ago.

In those times there was more happiness, more comfort and less stress. In the last decade the standard of living for our people has been stationary.

Income has been stagnant but the costs of living have risen tremendously.

Each and every one of you that reads this know what I mean but this Barisan Nasional government does not.

This frustration at the way things are repeated across the length and breadth of our nation is in every individual that feels the pain of trying to live within their means.

And that is a lot of individuals – in the millions!

Grim future

Everyone that enters the workforce are confronted with the reality of having too little money to meet their living requirements – shelter, food, clothes, transport and the other needs that make life bearable.

How many of you have enough left over at the end of the month to be able to help your aged parents with their needs?

How many of you have packets of instant mee in your pantry not for a rainy day but for your daily consumption?

How many of you live from month to month if not from week to week?

Owning a car is a dream, a house is an impossibility!

This is why our country is in flux. Our young want answers to the situation they are in.

Even at that age they know that race will define their education and their future.

For those already in the workforce it is a frantic rat race that promises nothing but more pain and no gain – pain because you realise that things will not improve for you in the foreseeable future and your government has left you to your own devices to survive.

No gain because opportunities for job or financial advancement are simply not there.

For the aged there is no hope if you do not have the financial resources to pay for your retirement and your medical needs.

For the vast majority of us the future is grim.

Warped Umno

Everyday brings more despair, not hope, as this BN government lurches from one day to the next fearing political death at every turn for the leaders know that they are past their “use by” date.

What they do in government today is what it thinks they need to do to get the electorate to vote for them in the 13th general election.

But the pity of it all is that Umno leaders have a warped sense of what they think they need to do to stay in government and we have been privy to what they have been doing in the lead-up to the 13th general election to see this for ourselves.

We are asked to be thrifty and yet this BN government gives away money in the billions to buy votes from the poor, the underprivileged, the aged, taxi drivers – anybody that they think can be bought!

To add insult to injury they do so with OUR money.

This BN government talks about reform and transformation initiatives that our country need and that is all they do – talk about it.

They talk about it in earnest, hoping that their bluster will somehow make us believe the rhetoric they spew of empty promises and deeds promised but not done.

We talk about the promises in despair while waiting for them to happen – but despair with a resolve that our leaders will be taken to account for promises made but not fulfilled.

In the end it will be about the numbers Pakatan Rakyat and the BN have going into the 13th general election.

For now, I think common sense has the numbers.

You tell me who will vote for Pakatan and who will vote for BN?

Who will vote for hope and who will vote to remain in the time wrap of grim impossibilities that we now find ourselves in? You decide!

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.