An open letter to a long-suffering homeland

Dear Malaysia, when we voted for change in 2018 we were overjoyed to get rid of a corrupt government which had been plundering your wealth for so long. We all thought the new dawn of hope would ease your suffering.

But sadly, things didn't go the way we wanted it to be. Only two years into the new era things began to fall apart. It is not that Pakatan Harapan didn't perform well or didn't make good on all its promises. It is those pesky fellows whom we threw out who are creating big-time trouble.

You see, these villains took advantage of the internal bickering in the coalition to seek the overthrow of Pakatan Harapan. In its place they want a new national unity government to run the show. In other words, they want to enter the government through the backdoor.

These trouble-makers want to cause you pain again. They have no conscience in their game of power grab. They don't care if the country is plunged into chaos as long as they are the political masters. This is really odious and disquieting.

We watch in rising anger their political shenanigans and we know you are quaking with fear lest these pests come back to power. These political rascals have no conscience at all; they will continue to squeeze you dry and flog you to death if ever they get hold of you again.

What can we do to put the brakes on their diabolical machinations? Do we have the numbers to push them back and protect you from their despicable designs? Malaysia, we think we can stop them and put them where they belong: in the dustbin of history.

In the last general election, we flexed our muscles and booted out a rotten government led by a person who is now in the dock facing many charges of misdeeds while in office. You see, Malaysia, if we can overthrow a government which had been ruling for 60 years, we have no problem facing down anyone who wants to challenge our people power.

Indeed, Malaysia, we are living in dangerous times all because these power-hungry politicians want to snatch you back and make you obey their commands without a word of protest. They will trample on you and grind to dust all the ideals we cherish so dearly like the freedom to worship and freedom to dissent.

You are a land of many races and faiths, but some fools want to establish a form of government that is rooted in Malay-Muslim power, which means they don't want others to be part of their family. This is silly. They are asking for trouble because you, Malaysia, belongs to all, and people will fight to defend their rights.

We don't really know why and how all this turmoil came about, but we have a sneaking suspicion that it could be the work of this very, very old man whom we chose to be your guardian for five years. He could have prevented this mess by not running to the palace to hand over his resignation letter.

This man, Malaysia, is a cunning fox. He probably had it all planned in order to see how much support he would get by this tactical manoeuvre. Nobody knew he was going to do this. The only hint that he was up to something was when he didn't show up for work.

Then all hell broke loose when this near-centenarian leader revealed his trump letter. Sure enough, supporters ran to him, and even more dramatic, he was re-appointed to jaga pintu again for the time being.

But the old doctor broke his silence and gave a different version of events. He's pointing his fingers at Umno, which wants something he couldn't agree: to enter the government and eventually dominate it. That's why he threw his job away.

Now, Malaysia, probably this crisis could have also been prevented if this other man had waited patiently for his turn. As you know, the old man made a promise to hand over the baton to this reformasi man sometime in May. But this polarising figure apparently is not quite popular.

Thus, it all came to a boil and culminated in the infamous Sheraton conspiracy. There it seems a plot was hatched by traitors and outside accomplices to destroy Harapan. They did succeed to a certain extent: the alliance of hope has collapsed.

Malaysia, we don't know how events will shape up in the coming days, but we can rest assure you that we will not abandon you to all these political vultures. You have suffered enough. Come the next battle of the ballot box, we will go all-out to restore true democracy to you.

Besides, you can be sure that we will interview every candidate - young and old and very old - for public service by marking our ballot papers. This time, we will definitely not stand for a simple majority or a hung parliament. It will be a landslide victory for the forces of good over evil.

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PHLIP RODRIGUES is a retired journalist. - Mkini