One slow Sunday afternoon, I was cursorily glancing through my emails and consistently hitting the delete button.

Something caught my eye that stopped me from hitting the delete button once again. The subject heading simply read "Bersih 2.0".

Let me be clear, I am no activist. I am a nearly 30-years young professional, living in the bright lights and not so clear skies of Petaling Jaya.

Like many of the people around me, so apathetic am I about the state of our country's politics that I have even stopped reading the news.

Disgusting though it may sound, admittedly, I read the papers solely for the sports and entertainment news.

Going back to this little email that caught my eye, its contents were words that I could understand and associate with, even in my befuddled semi-hungover Sunday state of mind.

For too long have I heard grouses and grievances about the state of our country, its politics and a never ending list of other discontents.

We grumble and then we grumble some more.

Yet, somehow we are unable to organise our collective will to do something about the state of affairs of this nation that is home.

Commonly, the sentiments are "But we can achieve nothing, our efforts will come to nowt, so why bother".

Then something like Bersih 2.0 comes along. The eight demands set out by Bersih calling for freer and fairer elections are genuine and clear demands that any civil democratic society should have in place or at least strive to have in place.

These are not unreasonable demands but demands that are the foundation of a democratic society, regardless of political affliations and leanings.

This is what stands out to me. This is what I agree with.

You may ask yourself if your participation will lead to freer and fairer elections or if your one individual participation will lead to that proverbial tipping point where these eight demands will be implemented come the 13th general election.

Perhaps, perhaps not.

Maybe we will never know and maybe just maybe our efforts will come to nowt. However, don't we want to at least try. To stand up and say here we are, trying to make a difference together.

We have to trust and know that much more will be achieved for the good of our nation if like-minded individuals come together and adopt a mindset that says "Why not instead of a passive "Why bother".

We have to stop leaving it to others, thinking that so-called activists will step up and do their bit. Who are the activists if not us. It is you and I.

I know I owe it to myself and to my country to do all in my power to try. The list of discontents may be long, but the first step to resolving that is by ensuring the foundations of democracy are strong.