History was created in America on Nov 4 when Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the US. Finally, a black American being elected to the highest public office in the world’s most powerful nation. Millions of people from all over the world greeted this with hope, pride and joy.

Abraham Lincoln would’ve been proud of America if he were still alive. Martin Luther King Jr would’ve been proud that his famous dream was finally realised. Yes, Americans have voted.

The candidate was judged not by the colour of his skin but by the content of his character. For this brief shining moment at least, Americans have shown the world that racism is dead in America.

A country with 80% of its population white who once enslaved the blacks now voted a black as their president. It is a country where the citizens are viewed by fellow citizens as equals. You saw a free, fair and democratic election in action. I congratulate Barack Obama for this historic win and hope that he will play a key role in bringing world peace.

Malaysia celebrated its 51 st year of independence two months ago. What have we achieved? A fair bit but it could have been a lot more. Looking back on the recent events that are happening in our beloved country recently, they make me wonder whether we are moving backward instead of forwards.

When the Selangor Menteri Besar announced the appointment of Low Siew Moi as acting general manager of PKNS, the narrow-minded got mad and made a big hoo-ha over the appointment. This is disappointing.

What is even more disappointing is the deafening silence of the prime minister and other senior ministers. I wonder what is their stance on this appointment. How on earth can we progress when there are government posts only reserve for the Malays?

Pick the best brains from 100% of the population ie, all Malaysians and not just from 60% of the population.

Then we have more‘champions’ protesting the use of other languages on street signboards. Let us be more rational about the whole affair. We have signboards in various languages because we want to be tourist-friendly and will boost our tourism industry.

Imagine if you make a trip to say Vietnam and you came across a street signboard in Bahasa Malaysia. What will be your first reaction? You will be thrilled. This would be a talking point when you talk about your trip to Vietnam with your friends.

In fact, I would suggest that street signboards in Pasir Mas be also in the Thai language to attract tourists from Thailand. Wake up! Bahasa Malaysia was never being threatened and believe me, it never will be.

Then we have politicians defending the 30% bumi equity in listed companies. The international trade and industry minister wass vocal in defending this 30% requirement. He is claiming that the bumi percentage has been stagnant for more than 15 years but he did not say why. Does he know why?

The truth is when the bumiputera are given shares in listed companies, they sell the shares in the open market and the listed companies are left with the difficult task of fulfilling the bumi equity requirement again. Whose fault are we talking about here?

The percentage holding is subject to changes from time to time. Take, for example, why foreign shareholding fluctuates all the time. If they find the share prices are overvalued, they will sell down and reduce their shareholdings.

Similarly, the bumi might be doing the same and parking their funds elsewhere and waiting for the right time to come back. To require a listed company to comply with a 30% equity all the time is a tall order. How do they ensure the bumi does not sell down?

So the best solution is that the bumiputera must be taught how to fish and not to expect fish to be given to him all the time. Concerted efforts should be made to focus on how the bumi is to acquire the right and necessary skills to succeed in the business world. The key words are education, education, education. and hard work, hard work, hard work.

This is what we call progress and moving ahead. Having said that, other non-bumis who are in need should and must be given equal assistance and together we all move forward and upgrade our economic and social well-being. We need to look at the issues from a broader prospective and not from the short-term.

There are many more issues which crop up from time to time and upon which politicians pounce for the sake of being ‘champions’ and on which I need not go further. The key as to whether we can move forward is simple.

The rakyat must demand a just and fair society governed by the federal constitution. With good governance, judicial reforms, a government free of corruption and good economic management we will move ahead faster than we thought.

Politicians and politicians hiding behind NGOs have wasted too much time politicking and it is time to focus and get our country going. We will have our sixth prime minister next year so will he succeed?

He should know how and it’s up to him. We will be the boss again come the general election if he fails. The road may be long and bumpy but together we can all be rich in moral values, in economic values, in quality of life and in knowledge.