When I read about the annual fiasco concerning the scholarship awards for deserving students, and invariably the inexplicable (and also annual) selection of candidates for medicine, I cannot help but recall one frustrating and rather heartbreaking word inevitable.

Yes, these scandalous states of affair are 'inevitable' in a Malaysia that considers some of its citizens as lesser, unequal beings. Today some officials and ministers even have the nerve to talk about, or invent gimmicks, to promote patriotism.

Patriotism or loyalty is not a one-way traffic of emotion, though it may run that way for a while, mainly driven by idealism and naivety, and perhaps prolonged a bit more by hope. But that hope, surely, is slowly diminishing.

The scholarship scandal is but a small example of what happening in our country for decades.

When I wrote my previous letter , a friend asked me how we had come to this situation? Instead of progressing, we are polarising. The reasons are plainly and painfully obvious.

Though we know what's happening around us, we find it hard to articulate them into one simple sentence there are just too many factors like the politically promoted ethnic divide, greed, corruption, selfish leaders, apathetic voters, lack of information, misinformation, lack of political choice, incumbency of the mediocre, so on so forth.

All these didn't happen yesterday. They weren't caused by one single person. They didn't arise for any one particular reason. They aren't maintained nor sustained by one sole driving force.

But nonetheless, like a voraciously greedy juggernaut, the Malaysian monster tramples arrogantly and mercilessly forward, unstoppable and not wishing to stop.

The solution is straightforward. Its implementation is more difficult. It requires leadership, statesmanship, foresight, sheer guts, honesty, willpower, perseverance and most of all, decency.

The Malaysian Gordian Knot stands out before our eyes. But we still look desperately for the elusive mythical Iskander.