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No cure in sight yet for Malaysia's political malaise

Who does not know the political nightmares plaguing Malaysia all these years from the very day day that former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had sacked and subsequently jailed Anwar Ibrahim - his then deputy?

Who is not talking of the mind-boggling financial scandals rocking this once most promising nation in the region?

Who has not raised hell and brimfire threats, along with having peacefully protested in tens of thousands over the political malaise that has now besieged the entire nation?

The online media have not failed to keep the reports coming in despite all the threats and legal suits against them. The foreign media did not fail to scoop and make expose after expose.

But the US president prefers to play buddy-golf and now, in all likelihood, would be sounding even more politically correct and polite as Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak makes his way to the US-Asean Leader’s Summit next week.

The goods and services tax (GST) has succeeded in plunging an entire working population to seek second and third jobs to keep going. The shaking-sinking ringgit not only has made our ‘daily bread-and-butter’ all the more expensive, but even the millions of foreign workers are asking for a raise that - bet your bottom dollar - will not come.

What’s in store is more money-milking on the way, yes?

Yet, as Parti Amanah Negara chief Mohamad Sabu rightly pointed out at a rally commemorating the jailed political promise last night, “Malaysians are cowards.”

Our bread-and-butter is far more important; our paying of car loans and keeping the mortgage going is what matters; earning extras through whatever means - right or wrong - is all that matters these days to see through the kids in college.

Along with that, we are also more inclined to fight tooth and nail over what is haram (forbidden) and halal (permissible) - from trolleys in hypermarkets, to how much of our body shape is revealed in sports.

The uninformed as kingmakers

We have arrived at a point that, even to say publicly that “Malaysians are cowards”, would be deemed as seditious.

Seriously, it has come to a point that rural, uninformed folk will be the kingmakers while the learned, wise and experienced who still have a conscience and acute awareness over what is right and wrong, are becoming insignificant voices to this nation’s future.

The weekend that came along with the Chinese New Year break witnessed shock waves of intentions to sink the nation further and deeper into the backwaters of a regime that shatters democracy. The freedom and right to know and that parallel imperative duty to inform was murdered with attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali revealing the train of things to come.

How long more, how many decades more must this nation of people wallow and wobble before we can step forward as a country that is a beacon of hope and inspiration to the world? Or is this hope, too, now a mere resonance of the lyrics from the song by Boney M, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down yeah we wept, when we remembered (our cowardice)...”

Not only is Mat Sabu saying “Malaysians are cowards”, but we also know that the millions of foreign workers - the Myanmar citizens, Cambodians, Thais, Filipinos and Indonesians - are all saying the same.

Meanwhile, our Asean neighbours are bracing for better transparency, greater accountability and have put degrees of fear in politicians to walk the talk and help talk the walk of what a nation needs to be in order to embrace the future ahead of them.

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