Malaysia, why you? So many disasters; so much of divisiveness amongst us; and with uncertainties, as we look in the direction of a new year, minus all the planned celebrations now.

Reflection is a must if we want to move forward. And what better time if not now as we close the year 2014 and take inventory of our performance, mistakes, failures and omissions in the moments of truth that 2014 brought us.

We have never resolved with a national will to see that justice reigned supreme for the cruel, gruesome murder that blasted a lone fragile Mongolian mother, daughter and citizen - Altantuya Shaariibuu, into nothingness in our own yard.

We have marched a political hero - Anwar Ibrahim, through the courts, imprisoned, brutally beat him up and nearly killing him, and still keep his future and dignity hanging precariously without a verdict on the sodomy charges.

We keep our very own citizens - the Christians, divided between East and West Malaysia with the ‘Allah’ exclusivity and with no verdict yet again, let alone the incidents of Bible and worship books’ seizures.

We scream ‘Malay First’ and not Malaysians first, going against the very grain of global standards where minorities are protected out of a deep sense of duty to humanity with greater care, honour and dignity.

We have drummed up suspicion amongst ourselves to such a high pitch that everything becomes seditious and is deemed treason at the slightest provocation or even suggestion.

We are home to three major aviation disasters and we have no idea why this must happen to us. But some will quickly hide behind the masks of religion, claiming it is because we serve alcohol and dress with above knee-length skirts.

We faced, in Cameron Highlands, massive crop failure and hardship as the mountains started cascading an avalanche of mud and we ended up blaming a few hundred illegal immigrant workers for the catastrophe. The disaster was wrapped up without answers as to who removed the forests, yielding vast tracks of slopes for crop cultivation.

And now as we inch to the last days of the year 2014, we are deeply troubled by the still rising over 200,000 citizens who are displaced owing to floods never before seen in our history. And some have the audacity and blinkered obsession to claim that it is because of our sins against having hudud laws implemented.

For all our hardships and failures we quickly seek comfort by uttering “God’s will”. And in some instances we claim that the opposition politicians are spreading lies.

Indeed, the answers perhaps do not lie in the work of a malevolent god or the moon but in the irresponsible and unrelenting heart of us Malaysians.

Lessons for life

Hopefully 2014 will teach us some lessons for life.

The first lesson is that we must have a national crisis preparedness that is world class. Knowing that the weather patterns are changing fast and that Malaysia is at the mercy of worsening monsoons, it makes no sense to pump so much of taxpayers’ money in building mega-structures that only make a few people turn billionaires.

Any amount of breath-taking twin towers and mega airports are useless if we cannot have an early warning system as well as evacuation and effective flood relief systems in place. Pleading with the generous hearts of citizens in the wake of such disasters for aid is a clear attestation that the government did not have its heart in the right place to begin with.

The other lesson is we must make sense of Murphy’s Law. That is the first step to taking responsibility and a must if we want to be accountable and not push the blame to God or the moon.

For as long as nature will always side with the hidden flaw in any man-made system, Malaysians must rise to correct all that have been going wrong these past over five decades if we want to see 2015 end on a brighter note.

In a nutshell, that means making sure that ethics dictates our political, social, economic and environmental paradigms.

Let 2015 not be another experience of staying in power by any means but one where only those who can deliver on the promises remain in power to do better job. Let our owning up to failures be the mother of our conscience. That is patriotism.