May the force be with us in 2013

We cannot dismiss what has happened during and before 2012 and just hope that 2013 will bring a change to all the horrors of an abusive government and their arrogant leaders.

COMMENT

Here we go again! Amidst the fun and frolics of this last festive season of 2012, I will do, as many of you are wont to do, the toting up of my plusses and minuses for the year that just ended.

In the past I have always done this furtively knowing that in the end the minuses will surpass the plusses, the negative overwhelms the positive because I am, after all, human and a creature of habits.

I always take the road less travelled instead of the one already travelled by others. I am determined to do things my way rather than the ways of the many.

…but I digress.

Let us get back to that plusses and minuses of 2012. Not for me but for our beloved Malaysia!

For me there is not one single issue or incident that stands out from all the others. How can I think of 2012 when what has happened before 2012 overwhelms me?

Memali, Bank Bumiputra, May 13, 1969, the ISA, the PPA, Ops Lallang, Anwar Ibrahim, Eric Cheah, Tun Salleh Abas, Altantuya, Teoh Beng Hock, Aminursayid, Kugan, Ahmad Sarbani, Noramfaizul Mohd Nor, Khir Toyo, PKFZ, NFC, cronyism, money politics, corruption dan lain lain.

These are the thoughts that stay in my head and overwhelm all the plusses and minuses of 2012.

All of them have one common thread linking each and every insidious event, names and incidents – Umno.

And to most of these events, one name keeps recurring ad nauseam: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

A litany of abuses
How then can I think only of 2012 when I should really reflect on how is it that our beloved nation has come to this:

• Malaysia called the most corrupt country for business.

• Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhari, the blue-eyed poster boy-cum-business tycoon touted by Umno as its richest bumiputera corporate figure and the 7th richest man in Malaysia, has a combined debt of RM34.3 billion.

• Our Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak thinks that swearing in the mosque absolves him from complicity in a murder and the need to subject himself to the process that he insist his nemises, Anwar Ibrahim be subjected to: that of the Malaysian judiciary.

• The murder of suspects in custody by PDRM.

• The propensity…nay the greed, of Umno and Barisan Nasional politicians (serving and retired), their families, cronies and friends and acquaintances to acquire insane wealth and the arrogance for them to insists that it is their God given right to do so.

There are more, but I ask you this: How can I think only of 2012 when I have witnessed almost every noble value and aspirations that I hold dear for my country and of it’s leaders disintegrate before my very eyes?

Disintegrate because of the failure of Umno and the failure of the government that Umno has led for over 50 years to do what is right for the common good of our people, our country and our future.

No, we cannot ignore all this and just think of 2012.

Leave 2012 with dignity
We cannot dismiss what has happened during and before 2012 and just hope that 2013 will bring a change to all the horrors of an abusive government and their arrogant leaders.

Yes go into 2013 we must. But we go into 2013 burdened by the abuses of a government that has failed in its duty of care for its own people.

So let us leave 2012 quietly, softly and quickly and leave behind an annus horribilis for all of us….except maybe for Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and the family of NFC infamy!

So my friends, let us leave 2012 with dignity and have within us all this noble passion to do what is right for our common good.

To care for those that are less fortunate than us. To give dignity in life for the aged.

To give hope of a better future for our children and to take our long suffering nation out of debt, out of its servitude to the greed of Barisan Nasional politicians and into a 2013 of change.

In closing I bid you Happy New Year and may the force be with you! Salam.

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