For all our languages, we can’t communicate
For all our native tongues, we’re all natives here
Sons of their fathers dream the same dream
The sound of forbidden words become a scream
Voices in anger, victims of history
Plundered and set aside, grown fat on swallowed pride.

With promises of paradise, through quotas at a price
Champions and the warriors are racists in disguise
Ministers and their mistresses, they make us wait
Inherit the earth, they scream the enticing bait
With the touch of a young child’s hand
Innocence turns to shame
The devil that dwelt within
It sleeps out in the rain.

For all our languages, we can’t communicate
For all our native tongues, we’re all natives here
The scars of the past are slow to disappear
The cries of the dead are always in our ears
Only the innocent can talk of wrong and right
Of those who are forced to choose
Some will choose to fight...

(*Adapted from Paul Doran)

DR KUA KIA SOONG is Suaram adviser. This poem is from the conclusion of 'Patriots & Pretenders: The Malayan Peoples' Independence Struggle' by Kua Kia Soong, Suaram 2011.