The country lost its direction and went nuts a long time ago. Judging from cyber-news reports concerning the arrest of both Anwar Ibrahim and Raja Petra, I am now totally confused as to what the government's priorities are.

Is alleged sodomy (which if it is true, is most likely to be consensual) a greater crime than abusing captives in police custody and then denying it? Is alleged defamation a more lethal crime than alleged involvement in the murder of a foreign national, that the former has to be arrested and brought to court, while the latter is still scot-free?

We are a nation without a common philosophy. That's what we are. And that is why for the last 50 years, Malaysia's progress lacks direction due to the absence of a single common set of philosophical belief and guidance. We are a nation heading everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

In other words, we are lost.

The government insists that we should follow the principles of the Rukunegara. But the Rukunegara is merely a set of national ideologies and not philosophy. We must understand that there is a big difference between philosophy and ideology, as clearly illustrated in this well written article entitled Philosophy and Ideology .

According to the writer, philosophy is a guide and a general construct meant to help us think whereas an ideology is rigid, dogmatic and doesn't respond to facts or circumstance. In fact ideology 'brooks no dissent' as proven by our prime minister's recent accusation that bloggers are treacherous because they have blemished the Rukunegara.

Even the various government policies and countless battle cries of racially biased politicians are actually divisive ideologies which further widen the cracks in our multi-cultural society. The New Economic Policy which was supposed to address the gap between the rich and poor has been manipulated throughout the years by the ruling party to enrich and empower itself.

There is no single national philosophy that binds us all together as a nation. Each level of society seems to have its own ideas about the purpose of their existence in this country.

The Barisan Nasional government behaves like a huge corporation that treats our natural resources and wealth as their very own. Civil servants who are supposed to serve the rakyat become servants to the ruling party instead. The rich are busy accumulating their wealth through any means possible. And the poor rakyat continues to be exploited by all of the above.

Yes. Without a common philosophy to guide the nation, it is the poor rakyat who are at the losing end.

The grassroots which many politicians are suddenly talking about nowadays need to be nurtured properly for the country to grow. Otherwise the roots will just rot away into oblivion and the whole country will eventually fall. Unfortunately, even after their major losses in the recent elections, Barisan Nasional leaders fail to understand the real needs of the rakyat .

After 50 years of lack luster performance, our country seriously needs a collective philosophy to propel the nation through these uncertain times of global economic and political upheaval. For that we need leaders who are able to inspire the nation, mobilise them towards achieving their goals and at the same time, always be in control of situations.

Sadly, these three qualities are absent from the present leadership. Our present batch of leaders is devoid of any philosophical stance except of filling their own pockets with the toils of the rakyat.

So what is this great Malaysian philosophy that we should yearn and strive for?

First of all, we need to identify the main causes of segregation in this country. If you are a government supporter, you will say that the reasons for our disunity are religion, race and riches. If you are in the opposition, then you will most likely say that it is the politicians themselves who are the main cause of religious discrimination, racial intolerance and widening wealth disparity in our country.

In any case, both sides are correct. That is why the first thing we should do is remove bigoted politicians from power and replace them with capable leaders who have the whole nation at heart. Only then can we start to address the three segregating factors of religion, race and riches.

Religion: Although the first principle of the Rukunegara is 'Belief in God', it is obvious that almost everyone does not want to believe in the same God! Islam and Christianity originated from the same God and yet their followers try their best to highlight the differences rather than rejoice in their similarities.

Then you have the Hindus who believe in the many manifestations of God and the Buddhists who uphold the idea that they only way to salvation (Nirvana) is through our own efforts.

And then there are the atheists who do not believe in the existence of a supreme being at all.

We can all argue and defend our religion till kingdom comes but the universal truth is, we will never get any closer to the ultimate answer at the end of the day.

That is the reason why, in order to safeguard harmony, religion should never be included in any national ideology or philosophy. Religion is a private matter and should only be confined to the hearts of its followers.

Malaysians should instead take advantage of the multi-religious nature of our country to celebrate spirituality. Judging from the thousands of mosques and temples all over the country, it is obvious that Malaysians are truly spiritual people. So why don't we celebrate this abundance of spirituality by absorbing the good values from each religion?

After all, it is safe, acceptable to everyone and contributes to the strengthening of our moral values.

Race: Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban, Kadazan and others. The only way you can change your race is to change your parents. If you can't do that, then I am afraid you will have to stick to being who you are.

It sounds profound, doesn't it? Yes, but not as profound as creating a Malaysian race or Bangsa Malaysia, which is much touted by both the opposition and the government. I for one, used to believe that we should all strive to become one single Malaysian race.

That is until someone pointed out to me that it is impossible to change the genetic structure of a person and that our real goal should actually be to strive for a single Malaysian identity which is inclusive of all races in the country.

However, we Malaysians are typical hard core 'racists'. We seem to adore the word 'race' so much that it features in almost everything we say and do. The word is found everywhere - in our identification cards, passports, official forms and documents.

But we have totally forgotten that the one race which we all belong to is the human race. Perhaps this is what we Malaysians should be aiming for – a human race with Malaysian identity.

Riches: Everywhere in the world there are rich people and poor people. Even in communist and socialist countries, the distribution of wealth is not as balanced as they would like it to be and we can still see a disparity between the rich and poor. Malaysia, being a capitalistic democratic country, is not exceptional in this case.

We will never be able to eradicate poverty and inequality in Malaysia totally but we can eradicate government policies that contributed to this problem. Firstly, the much manipulated New Economic Policy has to go. It should then be replaced by a new policy which encourages meritocracy and distribution of wealth based solely on needs.

The philosophy behind this is that people should work as hard as they are able to, and they should be remunerated according to their achievements. Those who have tried their best but are still unable to make it, should be helped through other constructive methods.

As opposed to the previous policy in which the differentiation is between the rich and the poor, our new philosophy should be aimed at sieving out the lazy section of society from the hard working group. In that way, funds are not wasted and the disparity of wealth will commensurate with the amount of hard work a citizen contributes to nation building.

We are now at the crossroads of our destiny. If we choose to be led by a rigid, dogmatic and unresponsive government, Malaysia will end up in the backwaters of the world. If choose to change our old ways, and get ready to embrace a new philosophy of nation building, then we will be on the right track that will take us greater heights.

I hope we choose the latter. Fifty years of stagnation is more than enough to make anyone puke.