The year 2008 has been deemed by many to be a woeful year. Yet I see it differently. I see it as a year where excesses were finally curtailed, where the arrogant were humbled and where great despair was slowly replaced by small glimmers of hope for better days ahead.

Global financial markets suffered from huge volatility and trillions were wiped out. Giant financial institutions once thought to be too big to fall, fell. We are all Keynesians now – as governments are now looked upon as the only saviours able to save their countries’ economies from further collapse.

Massive government stimuli, re-regulation and ultra-loose monetary policies are now the flavour of the day. The free market ideologies of the Chicago School are being quietly discarded after its disciples presided over some of the worst financial turmoil and scandals, brought about by over-zealous beliefs that markets are self-regulating.

Politics-wise, well, some bad, some good. Zimbabwe is still ruled by a president who is perversely spending his energies in a desperate bid to cling on to power, instituting brutal oppression of any opposition. Meanwhile, epidemics, runaway inflation and hunger ravage the country.

The Middle East did not see a ceasefire last beyond 2008 between Israel and Hamas – and we ‘greeted’ the new year with hundreds dead and thousands injured in Gaza.

On a brighter note, the US saw the election of its first non-white president, which cast a warm glow of optimism around the world as many countries partake in the hope of a new era after the destructive foreign adventures of George Bush.

In Malaysia, we, too, had our ups and downs. BN lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament. Five states, which together account for the major portion of the country’s GDP, fell to the opposition.

The semi-destruction of BN saw the birth of a viable two-party system, and the emergence, hopefully, of a true democracy where the people are the masters, not their political representatives.

However, the BN seemed to have decided that its setback was only momentary, and that the people will come back to their senses in the next general election. So out comes the usual ‘divide and conquer’ politics – racially-charged statements, senseless use of the Internal Security Act and instructions to the media ‘to behave’.

President Ronald Reagan, at the 1992 Republican national convention, said, ‘Whatever else history may say about me when I am gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts’.

I certainly hope that for 2009, our new prime minister will echo the same thoughts – that in the face of immense challenges facing Malaysia, if the government insists on instilling fear by emphasising what we can lose, instead of what we can gain from meritocracy, transparency and the courage to reform our many failed institutions, then the seeds of opportunities brought about by the ‘creative destructive’ forces of 2008 will be forever squandered.

Malaysia will be further left behind as governments around the world re-tool their economies and restructure their institutions in the face of a new global reality caused by the near collapse of the global financial system.

I prefer to remain optimistic that change is in the air this year. After all, we Malaysians are lucky in that there is still so much to hope for in this country of plenty. Happy New Year to all you hopeful Malaysians out there.