COMMENT | As the sun rises over the horizon to usher in the New Year, Malaysia will have very little to cheer about. Instead, there is a deep sense of uneasiness over the eventual fate of the country as it moves in aimless directions.

Why this simmering anxiety and fear? Shouldn't we all be rejoicing and savouring the wealth and abundance of this broad land? Shouldn't all be celebrating this unity in diversity?

But the journey, began in 1957 with so much hoopla, is heading down the slope.

It is not that the people entrusted with the power to manage the country do not know the causes of this slide. They know, but they prefer to look the other way.

The causes are many and they are not too difficult to ferret out. Just open the baggage Malaysia is dragging forward to the New Year. Shake out all the contents inside and what will spill out are all the same old problems and unresolved issues that have given rise to so much apprehension.

See the big bundles? Those are labelled racism and religious bigotry that...