THE TRUTH IS IN THE EVERYDAY – AND EVERYDAY MALAYSIANS CAN SHARE, THEY CAN UNITE: SO LONG AS MAHATHIR & PAKATAN REMEMBER NOT DANCE TO UMNO & PAS SCRIPT BUT STAY TRUE TO THE MALAYSIAN DREAM – ‘LET THERE BE LIGHT, AND THERE WAS LIGHT’

After what has been a whirlwind of coverage on some heavy issues, which have bordered on being racially charged, I recently came across an appeal from a former minister in a widely-circulated English daily – opposing religious bigotry and racial extremism. It was a strange morning, on the train, which was packed (and delayed – perhaps due to the weight on all our shoulders with increasingly sombre news).

While reading this letter, with so many faces of my Malaysian brothers and sisters who were helping accommodate each other, finding some space for one another in yet another day of their morning ritual – I found myself in a most unusual state, on one hand, there is the issue of calligraphy, of a foreign national, even a road rage incident. On the other hand, there is this picture that I see (in living colour, as they say). I say unusual because the picture does not match the news stories, the social media comments, the (perhaps) instigative comments from all walks and all realms of spokespersons.

Maybe the truth is in the everyday; maybe the reality is in the daily.

Malaysia is a young country, but has never been a stranger to growth. As Datuk Seri suggests, there has been communal polarisation. This communal polarisation is nothing more than an attempt to divide us and therefore jeopardize our growth (and I say attempt because a country with so many people, so many cultures and so many traditions is not a country that can be broken by mere words from a foreign national).

The fabric of our society cannot be fractured by something as insignificant as viral news stories. Our growth as a nation should not and cannot be affected by provocative sentiments and statements. We are not a nation of anarchy, of lawlessness. There are protectors of this country, of this nation– there is a way to weed out and wean off this form of negativity, the arms of the law is not a light one, it is as heavy, if not heavier than the public’s emotion.

To fight this is to stay together, to stay connected, to stay determined in our vision for the nation.

Let there be light: and there was light.

-Parveen Harnam