Do you share my sorrow, too?

by azly rahman

 Do you share my sorrow too:

Upon reading

• About the Low Yat Plaza incident that is now absurdly turning into a racial issue, with the forced invocation of May 13, 1969 and the ghosts of the bloodiest riot in our nation’s history.
• About the continuing saga of the nation versus its own prime minister in regard to the mystery and the puzzlement of the issues related to 1MDB.
• About the daily formal and informal reports of people getting burglarised and seriously injured, some meeting their death in such incidences.
• About rape cases involving minors... gang rape... to be exact... of 10, 12, 30 young kids destroying each other! No-nonsense parenting is key here, I believe.

We must not lose hope, though. Let us help educate each other.  Our society is being destroyed, in front of our eyes... this is a wake-up call... each family has to do its own job of taking care of their children while slowly releasing these wonderful human beings into society to participate as good, intelligent, ethical citizens.

Our society is more concerned with  these slogans and questions:

hudud,
Islamic state,
high-income society,
world-class education,
who wins in by-elections,
which politician is the most beautiful and good-looking,
who is the richest man or woman in the country,
which politician assemblyperson is going to jump ship,
how many more stadium roofs collapsing,
what airplane ping we are still hearing,
what derogatory word to use against each other or different race and religion,
what kind of shouting match to engage in in Parliament,
what X-rated sensational news to report even in the tabloids for the consumption of children since Sodomy I ,
how many milligrams of haram nano-substance is in the human body,
the endless Perkasa-Isma complaint against liberalism,
and all other categories of nonsense

... all these but not how to raise a good generation and ensure parental accountability...

Wake up, all of us, wake up... we are losing the next generation. The key is to fix education - making schools a happier place so that kids can find meaning, belongingness, are eager to learn every day, their gifts and talents appreciated, channeled well in the most productive ways, and they learn to craft vision... to get them out of the cycle of poverty, so that they will not detour daily to some empty houses, buildings, etc.

Not to play truant, ponteng kelas, and rape people... gang rape to be exact... and these children gang-raping, rempitising, and terrorising the neighbourhood, are mostly Malay-Muslims too, to be exact!

Distracted with issues that divide

Perkasa and Isma and those wishing to participate in genuine nation-building: help us reform these children of ours, too, rather than be distracted with issue that divide the nation and produce hatred.

I miss my kampong back in Johor Baru back in the day. I got to kiss the hands of old folk and give my respect to the elders as if each one of them is a Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather - because it took a kampong to raise us.

Politicians, I ask you: why can't your speeches be about:

• Coming up with strategies to create a better understanding between the races, since we've been together for centuries?
• Designing our education system to be inclusive of all Malaysians with each race treated on equal terms,
• Helping any group progress, regardless of race, religion, political affiliation, since we are all lawful citizens and we are not going back to ‘where we belong’,
• Stopping this nonsense called ‘1Malaysia’ as a greeting since 1Malaysia is already enough as a meaningless slogan and even 1Mandela would be better,
• Dismantling all systems that will perpetuate hatred amongst us and redesign our lives around celebrating our strength in diversity,
• Find ways to unify all races as one dignified race of Malaysians united against any threats from outside (if there are any real or imagined,)
• Coming together as Malaysians to redesign our education system that will truly enhance children's understanding of concepts, skills, attitude to become good learners, global and transcultural in outlook, and will grow up to see each other as a human race with a common humane destiny, rather than see more divisions and destruction,
• Collaborating with all races to see how best we can help those who are marginalised regardless of race and religion, and how best we can design an economic system that will promote cooperation, collaboration, and the enculturalisation of conscience and conscientiousness amongst us, rather that perpetually create competitions that lead to hatred and warmongering,
• Mediating the differences between Muslims of different interpretive practices, schools of thoughts, ways of leading their ‘Islamic life’ rather than create bogeymen and bogeywomen for the purpose of witch-hunting and persecuting each other of the things we cannot fully understand,
• Stopping the total closing of the Malay mind by constantly instilling fear of themselves since time immemorial, since feudal times, so that the Malays can be spared of being called stupid, weak, lazy, and dependent on Umno as saviour - all these a perfect model of a Master-Slave Narrative,

We need new speeches from you, Umno... we need saner ones...
you are a political party more intelligent than being imploded by the mess you are in...
a party my beloved grandfather a good ol’ Johorean was proud of back in the days of its early struggle... back in Johor Baru where it all started.
a grandfather I saw cried profusely in a corner, the day Abdul Razak Hussein died...

Behave now like an adult ... you are already 60!
or - are your days numbered, and better dismantled altogether, giving way to parties championing cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism with peace and social justice as agenda?

If you wish to still champion the Malays, take them out of the shackle of depression, beginning with our youth. The incident at Low Yat Plaza is an example of what has become of our children – lost in the pile of wealth we have accumulated the most corrupt way.

There is still time - if we all share the same sorrow.


ENDS