I love my country and I am proud to be a Malaysian

I hope to help make it better but sometimes when I look at my government and the people that run this country, I am heartbroken.

My government never seemed to love me back.

The people that run this country lie, cheat and steal from the tax payers.

So heartbreaking and devastating.

Sometimes, I ponder and wonder how this country will ever recover from the massive pillaging of its resources.

Why does our government and the people running it seem to suck so bad at governance?

Everyone on the political spectrum, and some self appointed thought leaders will be happy to help us sort out who to make wrong for it all, of course.

When my country does noble things, I feel pride, and when my country does ignoble things, I feel shame.

Our country’s accomplishments reflect on us and when the country falls short of our ideals, we experience that dishonor personally.

When the longest serving leader of this country, 22 years and 18 months issued a clarion call asking the Malays to vote for a Malay candidate on the excuse that he is uniting the Malay, he is not uniting but dividing this beautiful country.

It is a setback for democracy and mutual respect.

Superficially, he claims that he is rallying support on race on the fear that the Malay will lose this land.

He doesn’t fear the Malay will lose out on issues like the economy, education and public welfare.

But in honest truth, is that the issue ie the Malay will lose this land?

Or his main aim is to pave a way for a change of the current government to be replaced by a more pliant government that will officially end all attempts and investigations initiated by the current government into him, his children and his associates?

Akin to the DNAA given to the President of his former party that is so absurd that civil society groups felt compelled to challenge it legally?

As someone who had led this country for the most part of your life and as you mentioned in the last lap of your life, isn’t it healthier, physically and mentally, for you to work with every Malaysian to overcome division and work together across differences, to envision and create a future where we work together to build a safe and prosperous land where everyone is truly free and love flows for our country.

Don’t cling to unfulfilled goals that are definitively impossible at the present juncture.

Why impossible?

Anthropologically and historically, the Malay community is incredibly diverse rather than a single homogenous group.

While they are broadly grouped together under a single umbrella, this unity is largely the result of centuries of migration, intermarriage, and a shared ethno-religious identity (Islam and the Malay language) rather than a shared, pure genetic lineage.

Let Malaysians be Malaysian in whatever way they felt comfortable with.

Maybe they will have a lot less to fight about between races.

Letting go of these attachments is necessary to find peace in the present rather than living anchored to an idealized future.

FLK (leekhean.foo@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!

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