‘Nothing needs fixing in Malaysia’

If so many people think everything is hunky-dory in Malaysia, how can we ever be successful in bringing about meaningful change?

COMMENT

I went to a bazar last weekend to buy a birthday present for a friend. Armed with a photograph of her, I headed to a street artist there – I wanted to present my friend with a funny cartoon rendition of herself, a caricature to be exact.

Pulling a stool and watching the artist outline my friend’s image, I began chit-chatting with him. Having gone through the more mundane questions about breakfast, the weather and traffic, I found myself gazing upon a gigantic portrait of Najib Razak and Muhyiddin Yassin smiling broadly at each other as they shook hands.

“Itu gambar dulu-dulu,” the artist said, following my gaze. “Sekarang ni mana nak salam-salam, nak senyum-senyum lagi…”

I smiled.

“Itulah dunia politik, adik. Hari ni kawan. Esok jadi lawan. Semua orang ada punya hasrat dan niat dia sendiri, mana satu nak percaya pun kita tak tau,” he elaborated.

I was interested to know more about what this 40-something, Malay street artist thought of our country’s political scene. He, in my opinion represented the majority voter base who would decide the future of our country’s leadership.

“Antara Muhyiddin dan Najib, siapa agaknya pemimpin yang lebih baik?” I started with a simple question.

He laughed, “Dua-dua pun sama…”

“Tapi seorang je yang terima donation RM2.6 billion…” I chided.

“Itu lah dia, tabiat masyarakat kita – suka menuduh tanpa bukti. Berdosa tu dik,” he said as he completed the sketch and started looking for his colour markers.

“Eh, tapi bukti kan dah banyak. Sampai pemimpin dan media luar negara pun dah mula bercakap tentang kita,” I said, wondering if he was by chance a hermit who wasn’t keeping abreast of the shocking political developments in our country.

“Yang kita tau cuma apa yang kita baca dari media. Tapi ada nampak bukti kukuh depan mata? Ada saksi yang nampak? Ada dia mengaku? Jangan dipercaya sangat orang luar, mereka tu bukan apa, dengki dengan keadaan negara kita yang aman damai. Sebab tu lah diorang sengaja nak rosakkan keamanan kita,” he seemed confident of his point of view.

I froze for a while. I could not fathom the things coming out of his mouth.

“Najib tu taklah teruk sangat pun. Ye lah, harga barang naik – tapi semua tempat macam tu. Dah ekonomi tengah meleset, nak buat macamana? Kehidupan zaman dulu lagi teruk, negara tak aman, gaduh sana sini, ada perintah darurat, sampai nak keluar rumah pun takut. Tapi sekarang apalah sangat masalah kita?”

As I took the completed artwork and headed to the frame shop a few metres away, I remembered the exact same response given to me by an old friend from Baling, Kedah and an acquaintance from Seremban – both from the same voter base as the street artist. It bothered me no end that despite all the allegations and leaked information about the donation scandal, there were still those who would not budge from their stand.

“Why change something that isn’t broken?” I remember one of my pro-Umno acquaintances saying in our long WhatsApp chat.

“I guess your definition of ‘broken’ is different from mine,” I responded.

“Things are different from how it was, yes. But broken, no,” he was adamant.

“Perhaps you prefer to wait until something gets torn apart beyond repair before you decide to do anything about it,” I retorted, upset.

After a short moment of silence, his texts finally popped up, “Bottom line, nothing needs to be fixed, only improved.”

Seriously, if this is how our biggest voter base thought, we, as a country were in real deep trouble.

This fight is clearly no longer about changing those in government or flushing out corruption, but more importantly, about building and developing a nation when most people prefer to simply sit back and relax with a Kopi O in one hand and a cekodok in the other, waiting for complete annihilation before lifting a finger to bring about any real change.

“RM35 for the frame.”

I paid the exact amount to the shop owner as I looked at the caricature of my dear friend, all nicely framed-up now. Somehow, her exaggerated image staring back at me did not seem funny – not one bit. Nothing seemed funny anymore.

Sigh.