I want to believe in my government

— Amar-Singh HSS, Lim Swee Im
Malay Mail Online
OCTOBER 20, 2014

OCTOBER 20 — I want to believe in my government, I really do.

I want to believe that they care for all the people.

I want to believe that they are altruistic and want to serve, rather than lord it over the people.

I want to believe that programmes and plans put in place are there to benefit the poor and average person.

I want to believe that they respect and love our country and all the people in it.

I want to believe …..

But the reality speaks the reverse/opposite.

I see corruption growing and flourishing and my government complicit in it.

I see the gap between the rich and poor growing wider and ever wider, and our leaders’ children become billionaires.

I see policies and programmes put in place that benefit the powerful and rich.

I see voices who dare to speak out stifled and silenced by the selective use of archaic legislation.

I see the politics of racial and religious hatred, fear and distraction.

I see us regressing as a nation.

I see …..

But I still dare and want to hope

I hope not in my government but in the people.

I hope in the average person in Malaysia who inspires me.

I hope in simple people who refuse to follow our negative trends and continue to keep our beloved Malaysia alive.

I hope in people caring for people, bonds created, lives shared.

I hope in every person who struggles for our nation.

I hope …..

Perhaps these hopes are best expressed by parts of the poem “Prophets of a Future Not Our Own” written by Bishop Ken Untener in 1979, but is commonly known as “Oscar Romero’s Prayer”. Archbishop Oscar Romero was killed because he dared to challenge the domination system of El Salvador.

“It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

This is what we are about:

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.”

Be still my aching heart and know that the time will come when Malaysia, the land and people I love, will one day be whole again.

– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/i-want-to-believe-in-my-government-amar-singh-hss-lim-swee-im#sthash.2YTgZLJR.dpuf