Countdown to Merdeka: Malaysia, a nation that has LOST ITS WAY

A hundred days have passed since we saw the 13th General Elections. Fifty-six years would have passed since we attained independence, come 31 August 2013. What are we today as a nation of people? Where are we heading for the future, and for the generations more children who are yet to be born?

Looking at the summary of issues and crises plaguing this country – especially in the recent pasts, we know we must get involved in taking responsibility and playing a significant part in national overhauls.

As patriotic citizens, we must pause, debate, reflect and demand answers to the questions which determine where we have gone wrong and what we need to do to navigate this nation of people into a celebrated future.

Let us reflect on several parameters as we make a countdown to Merdeka celebrations come 31st August this year:

Still a government of hatred, racism, divide and rule

The recent wave of crimes in the country is not any more a ‘perception’. The newly minted Home Minister pegs a quarter million criminals are roaming our streets whereas his predecessor chided citizens for their ‘politicizing’ as the ‘increasing’ crime wave was a mere perception and a wrong perception too.

The fact that the 13th General Election issues are still a smarting wound festering with unresolved issues despite having seen a hundred days pass, raises questions about the Mahathiristic-democracy verses the sanctified principles that governments across the planet are bent in upholding for the benefit of their respective national progress.

The brutal battle waged against citizens as they peacefully assembled to seek for assurances of a free and fair election under the Bersih waves seems so far away from the pre-independence ‘war’ that citizens waged against their foreign, political masters. It appears that a nation’s own citizens are turned into the very enemies of a nation these days.

After over fifty years of governing, what are the issues that the lifetime BN-UMNO led government is battling these days?

If the news reporting is a benchmark, it seems that after over half a century of journeying together, Malaysians are carved out to hate each other. Religion and race issues are the very dichotomies that are splitting an otherwise one nation.

When nations across the globe have accepted the democratic pathway of elections with the graceful preparedness of losing or gaining the mandate to govern, why is it that in Malaysia after all these decades we live by the credo of “over our dead bodies and crushed bones”?

The Devil still with us

Today, if we have become very suspicious of each other, is it wrong to state that it is because of Malaysia’s failed political agenda? The pre-independence years and the period under Bapa Malaysia saw all of us coming together, living together, working together and aspiring to build a nation that all of us can proudly call as ‘The Malaysia of all Malaysians’.

But then there came the ‘Malay Dilemma’ and the architect of that diabolic mantra drove a deep wedge into the hearts and minds of Malaysians. Anyone who stood to disagree met his or her fate in solitary confinement under the whip of draconian laws – a lifetime of detention without trial.

Yet despite all the avalanche of policies and amendments to the Constitution, the citizens never lost their hopes for the times they had known together and well captured in celluloid by the legendary film icon and story teller, the late P. Ramlee.

The Constitutional Monarchy and our Royal Rulers were not spared. The multi-racial society was not spared. The multi-religious fabric of this nation was not spared. The landscape of administration – a rich and thriving legacy left behind by our foreign masters was not spared. All of Malaysia’s socio-political and socio-economic formulae were meddled, dismantled and re-assembled in accordance to one man – just one man’s seeming vision or ‘dream society’ if you may like.

And so if we are saddled with so much of divisiveness ranging from race to economics to religious to social paradigms, we know that it is because this one man has failed. More. We too have failed as a nation of citizens.

Fake and hype

Today as we stand to welcome Merdeka celebrations 2013, we know that all the showcased feel-good parades that we will witness at the Independence Square does not reflect the undercurrents that are knocking the very foundations that our Independence Founding Fathers anchored for us.

All the recent past thrity years of fine mortar of superstructures that pine for the skies and the macadamized kilometer after kilometer of tolled highways; all the spanking cities that mushroomed in once what was verdant greens and livelihoods of farming communities; all the glorified launches of seemingly innovative privatization schemes with promises of a better tomorrow – all of these and many more we have come to know have instead attacked the very institutions of nation building.

From the judiciary to the executive to the administration, we witness tainted hands with corrupt cases – proven, waiting in precarious state or still hinging on the label of mere allegations.

For a nation so blessed with predictable weather and conducive climate; for a nation endowed with an unending stream of premium grade black gold; for a nation with diversified roots of origins yet standing together and gaining self-governance way back in 1957; for a nation of people who never shied away from working hard and smart – we are today instead branded as lazy, crooked and drunks.

In place, we have seen the meteoric rise of a select few, making the handful of elitist so powerful and rich. The Official Secrets Act was a license to do whatever needed to be done to protect private agendas from enquiring minds.

And along with the privileged we see the courtship of individuals who live a life of lapdogs and parasites, scheming and scamming with power brokers.

A legacy to be ashamed of

This is the Malaysia that has been stripped of succession planning; a nation that is denied the existence and benefits of a democracy that is resonating in all of the developed world.

Yet, this 56th Meredeka is only seven years short of that miraculous Year 2020 whence Malaysia is to join the ranks of developed world status nations.

Indeed then, we have reached a point in the history of this nation where we have to ask with commitment, integrity and honestly: What is the Malaysia we are creating to leave behind?

MAILBAG