Dr M, you are wrong!
JULY 5 — I was quite disappointed to read of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s prediction that the upcoming general election would be more focussed on race and ethnic issues than ever before.
Through the programmes put in place under your leadership, the opportunities for education and learning provided by your administration, and through the shared experiences, heartache and pain that we have had over the past three decades, you bear much responsibility for the current state of affairs which resulted in the evolution of our people.
 |
| Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters |
They do this while securing sweetheart deals and line their pockets with public funds. They distract us from the bread-and-butter issues by abusing and misusing religion to promote bigoted and racist agendas against those of other ethnicities and religions.
Look around you, Dr M. Does it sound familiar to you? If all you hear is race, it is because you surround yourself or are surrounded by people who are terrified of positive change and are only looking out for their own selfish interests. Maybe it’s time to find a new group of friends.
Meanwhile, we are moving on.
If you had been at the rally on July 9 last year and the many rallies organised around the nation this year, particularly the one on April 28 at Dataran Merdeka, you would realise that this generation is neither an apathetic one nor are they troublemakers.
If you had been there standing and sitting with us and seen the peoples of Malaysia from all walks of life reflected in the faces of those gathered there that day in solidarity, you would realise that this is a group of people who care and love their country and who want to see a better Malaysia. You would have been proud of us.
When you see people standing in solidarity and unified together for no other reason than that they care about an issue of mutual and common concern which affects all Malaysians, are you not proud that we have looked beyond race?
Isn’t this what we sought to be and do? Are we forever going to be chained by the divisions created and cast by our former colonial masters? We cannot afford to be forever mired in racial identity politics
Today, to talk about race is to be selfish, narrow minded and to lack vision. A leader of today’s Malaysia must rise above race and communal politics. To remain relevant, the ruling coalition must learn to adapt and to accept the dawning reality that the old rules are increasingly fading into obscurity. It must reinvent itself or risk being obsolete, as some political parties are already finding out the hard way.
We need to move beyond the dinosaurs of the past who are fossilised and only know of the importance of race and their own selfish concerns.
We are moving on.
Perhaps the coming elections will be about race. It will be the beginning of how race ceases to become the unifying factor for people of this country. It will be the starting point when Malaysians began to see something greater than themselves and reached deep down and found courage in striking out into the undiscovered country, leaving the baggage of race in the dustbin of history.
