The Malaysian dream we haven’t built yet

 

EVERY Chinese New Year, we hear the familiar, comforting calls for unity. This year, the Prime Minister spoke of the Horse’s courage and wisdom, and even quoted Confucius on the beauty of mutual respect.

It was a beautiful sentiment but for many Malaysians, these well-crafted messages are starting to feel like a beautiful song played on a broken record player. In other words, we are tired of the melody of mere rhetoric. We are hungry for the music of action.

Look around us. We are a nation that has grown up. We are more urban, more connected, and more educated than ever before.

Our children have friends from every background, our offices are a tapestry of cultures, and our taste in food knows no racial boundaries. Yet, the conversation in our political sphere remains stuck in a decades-old time loop.

It’s the same old story. It warns us of threats, it fans the flames of identity, and it carves us up into neat little boxes labeled “us” and “them”.

And while we are busy looking sideways at each other, distracted by the fog of division, our pockets are getting lighter and our dreams feel further away.

The cost of living isn’t a racial issue, but it’s a problem for every single one of us. A secure job, a decent future for our kids, a government we can actually trust—these aren’t “Malay” hopes or “Chinese” hopes or “Indian” hopes.

(Image: Malay Mail)

They are *Malaysian* hopes. And while we fight among ourselves, these shared hopes are being held hostage by a system that benefits from our distraction.

The headlines tell us the real story. It’s a story of defence contracts that smell wrong, of mining licences traded for alleged bribes, of vast, shadowy networks of corruption.

It’s the ghost of 1MDB, still haunting us, a constant reminder of how much trust was stolen along with the money. These scandals don’t wear a racial badge. They are the face of a structural sickness where loyalty to a party boss is valued more than integrity to the nation.

When politicians can win our votes by making us fear the “other”, they don’t have to work hard to fix the roads or lower the price of chicken. The smoke and mirrors do their job for them

But here’s the thing: we aren’t buying it anymore. Especially not the young generation. They are digital natives, global citizens. They don’t care who “defends” their race; they care about who can code the next great app, who can create a job that pays a living wage, and who will fight for a future that is fair and innovative. They are pragmatic, and they are watching.

So, what would a new politics look like? It would be boring to some, but liberating for the rest of us.

It’s a politics where unity isn’t a slogan shouted from a stage, but a quiet trust built in everyday life. Trust that your child gets a place in university based on merit, not their background.

Trust that the pothole in your “taman” gets fixed as quickly as the one in the next town. Trust that when a leader speaks of “Malaysia,” they mean “all” of us, not just their voting base.

It’s a politics that moves from race-based aid to needs-based help. Instead of policies that divide us by labeling us, we need policies that unite us by helping the poor, the single mother, the struggling farmer, and the indigenous community—regardless of the colour of their skin. That’s how you build a nation.

It’s a politics that demands integrity, not just from the guy holding the contract, but from the system itself.

We need to know who funds our politicians. We need to see where our tax money goes. We need institutions like the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) to be so powerful and independent that no politician, from any side, would dare to cross them.

And yes, it’s a politics shaped by education—not to memorise facts, but to think critically, to question power, and to understand that being Malaysian is our most important identity.

Malaysia is not a poor country. We are a country rich in resources, in location, in spirit. The only thing we are truly poor in is political courage.

The future doesn’t belong to “Melayu politics” or “Chinese politics” or any other fragmented version of our identity. The future belongs to a new, confident “Malaysian” politics. A politics built on the simple, radical idea that competence matters more than race, and unity is stronger than division.

We have a choice. We can keep dancing to the old tune, letting fear write our history. Or we can finally change the song.

The change won’t come from the top. It will come from us. It will come when we, the people, decide to vote for our shared future, not our inherited fears.

The next chapter of Malaysia won’t be written by politicians. It will be written by us. Let’s make it a story worth telling. 

KT Maran is a Focus Malaysia viewer.

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.

- Focus Malaysia.