Will 2018 and thereafter be any different for Malaysians?

As Malaysians opt to drown their sorrows and struggles they have shouldered throughout 2017 and revel on the first day of the New Year 2018, here are some fundamental concerns which would serve us good to ponder, question and even demand for solutions.

The 16 million-strong workforce of Malaysians is predominantly living in debt. What they earn each month is increasingly becoming too paltry as they struggle to pay their bills. Savings has become a lost cause these past several years. Borrowing is now a "normal" lifestyle for many, going by the overwhelming roadside advertisements from "Ah Long"'s (money lenders).

Compulsory schooling is claimed to be free but ask any parent how much they are spending at the start of a new year and throughout the term. Higher education is on loan. Housing is on loan for the whole of your working life. Vehicle ownership is on loan.

Healthcare is subsidised – or so says the government, but who does not know that if you do not have money, you cannot get the best and timely medical care in Malaysia. Even senior citizens these days are told that there is a short supply of their routine, life dependency medication.

The cost of daily expenditures – transport, food, rentals, clothing, utilities and even telephone/mobile apps cost have all escalated quietly, leaving a deficit in the wallet of wage earners from month to month.

Yet we say there is tremendous progress in Malaysia. Yet we say that if housing now costs nothing less than RM250,000 for a basic apartment, you are still fortunate.

GST is also deemed as normal. Rising pump fuel costs are still said to be beyond the nation’s control.

Indeed, for a large chunk of Malaysians living and working here, their ownership is a whole big lifetime loan. Nothing belongs to you and by the time you get to own your motorbike, car, house or even your graduate ‘sijil’ (certification scroll), you would have spent your entire lifetime slogging away, only to retire with multiple medical complications.

But some will preach, "cut down on your sugar; live a healthy lifestyle". However, the wage earner feels the need for increased sugar and rice intake to find the energy to slog each day and night; moreover, health foods can be pretty expensive and beyond the reach of a vast segment of the working population. Going to the gymnasium also costs money but parks are few and far between, not to mention the lack of public safety.

As hard times started to bite into the year 2017, we were told to take on additional part-time jobs. That is another six hours of slogging, in addition to to the ten hours you sacrifice every day for the full-time job.

But life just seems to roll on simply because we have a population that gets sucked in on promises every five years. Complain as much as we will; grudge as much as we can; and yet, groan under the yoke of a debit life we will. But "why must it be this way?" is a question that does not seem to sink into our hearts and minds.

The chasm between the minority rich and the majority poor (or loans-based society) has been growing.

Is this the future we shall leave behind for the next generation to come? What then will 2018 turn out to be for the average Malaysian? Are we totally incapable of ensuring that life can be better like what we see in other progressive nations by determining a nation that enables rather than prods its citizens to live a decent life?

We need to ask ourselves: Have we been laid back? Have we taken things for granted? Have we thrown the towel in? Or are we plain care-a-less? Or perhaps are we merely too ignorant? Or just helpless, fearful and have resigned our will into the hands of our respective Gods?- Mkini