MERDEKA! MERDEKA! MERDEKA!
I used to love to go out during the National Day to see the parades and celebrations, or watch them on TV.Today, we decided to have some quiet time at home. No TV. Just a Digital Camera Magazine and little boy disturbing on and off.
I was born in the post Merdeka era. Don't really understand how bad it was in the colonial days. Just wondering, are we much better off now?
We are fighting against colonialism of another kind. Think about corruption, rising crime, lack of transparency, suppression of opinions, social injustice, racial extremism and racial discrimination, islamisation, inept leaders, misuse of public funds...
While the country is celebrating 50 years of independance, a greater segment of its society is still dependant on special priviledges for jobs, contracts, scholarships, discounts and whatever else you can think of. Independance? Hmmm.
Don't be too pessimistic la. Here are a few sobering reads for this Merdeka.
The social contract may once have seemed necessary to keep the peace but now it and the official racism that it is used to justify look indefensible: it is absurd and unjust to tell the children of families that have lived in Malaysia for generations that, in effect, they are lucky not to be deported and will have to put up with second-class treatment for the rest of their lives, in the name of “racial harmony”.
Four years on, corruption, facilitated by the pro-Malay policies, is unchecked. The state continues to use draconian internal-security laws, dating back to the colonial era, to silence and threaten critics. UMNO continues to portray itself to Malays as the defender of their privileges yet tries to convince everyone else that it is the guarantor of racial harmony. One commentator this week gently described this as a “paradox”. Hypocrisy would be a better word.
Think Malaysian - we do not have anything to lose except our mental chains.
The soap box orators of UMNO and its Youth Wing in particular have demanded that others respect the special rights and privileges of the Malays, while forgetting the fact that for the past five decades we – Malaysians – have had to put up with their own brand of small town politics incessantly.
No comments:
Post a Comment