COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
27 August 2014
Are Malaysians willing to stand together as Malaysians, or do we adopt a ‘tidak apa’ attitude as long as we are not affected by circumstances around us? – Reuters pic, August 27, 2014.Are Malaysians willing to stand together as Malaysians, or do we adopt a ‘tidak apa’ attitude as long as we are not affected by circumstances around us? – Reuters pic, August 27, 2014.Every morning, Malaysians awaken to a call: which side am I on?
Do we speak up for the poor, the marginalised, the bullied, the oppressed, the homeless? Or do we just shrug our shoulders and count our blessings that we are not with the disadvantaged?
Are we troubled when the law and the Constitution is treated as an inconvenience, something to be trampled on by the powerful? Or do we happily pretend that as long as we are not directly impacted, a cavalier approach to the law and principles set out by the Constitution is not on our list of concerns?
Do we discard our sloth and apathy when we hear or read about individuals or groups being punished for what is right and for standing up for a better Malaysia?
Or do we offer empty commiserations and pass off their hardship and punishment as hazards of their vocation, then continue wolfing down the nasi lemak?
Are we able to see beyond race, religion and politics and just call an injustice what it is – an injustice?
Or do we allow fellow Malaysians to suffer, to be treated poorly, to be threatened with jail-time, to have families deprived of their sole breadwinners just because they don’t share the same colour, religion or political affiliation as we do?
These are difficult days for Malaysia and Malaysians. Beneath the veneer of normalcy lies a host of problems. We are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but are full of dead men’s bones inside.
Things can only change if Malaysians move out of comfort zones and react to the question each of us is asked every morning when we wake up: which side am I on? – August 27, 2014.
It takes courage of conviction to make the world a better place for all. Malaysians must be very bold and very courageous to speak the truth at the appointed time. Yes it is sad to see so much evil under the sun. But every thing has its time. Our nation is going through birth pangs before we are born again as a country and government. Meanwhile we salute PR that has the courage of conviction to spearhead a much-needed ubah. The rest will fall into place. Truth and mercy will prevail.
The top most, the head, has to be right because if the top most is not right, nothing will ever be right. We will just be going around in circles and wondering if there is ever something correct. Why tidak apa ? Because the same thing, the same wrongs keep repeating itself.
Its not about side. What has happened is the denationisation of this country – lead by that one we called Mamak. We started off actually on different sides from the beginning. What we did was said we were willing to come together, we were willing to try. Then the likes of the one we call who really was pathological, said it was only worthwhile for to try only if he and his friends win and furthermore, winning means crushing others. A combination of selling political narcotics, bribing key people and simply straight lying was his formula to success – pretty much the same way psychotics can be successful.
We are denationized. The country is physical but not substantive, no real unseen bonds and threads that hold us together- so there is no real sides to speak off.
It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.
“Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!”