Spirit of Malaysia: Good friends (from left) Aimi Nurjannah Ahmad Fadilah, 10; N. Bhagawathy, 11; and Ong Chui Juang, 10; chatting by a Jalur Gemilang hung up at their school, Sekolah Kebangsaan Sultan Abdullah. — Bernama

THERE is a certain degree of apprehension, even uneasiness, this year as we celebrate National Day. Race relations in this country isn’t anything to be proud of, what with manufactured fears fuelled by groups with political interests.

There is a deliberate attempt to instil the perception that the Malay race and Islam are being challenged.

That belief is accepted not just by segments of the community in the lower leagues but, surprisingly, even in the upper echelons – by people we assumed would know better.

However, the ethnic equation of authority hasn’t shifted, and the Malays still constitute the anchor of power.

But the new government, a year into its service, must now grapple with this fear and is being forced to re-instil assurances that it remains the protector of the Malays and Islam, as well as other Malaysians.

It’s easy to be in the Opposition but much harder to be in the government of plural Malaysia, as many ministers are now starting to realise.

But Malaysia isn’t on the verge of breaking up. Far from it, in fact, because Malaysia is a middle-class country, with most of its people moderate and rational.

Sure, the weak economic sentiments haven’t helped, and when people have less money to spend, they have less patience, and perhaps, become easier to exploit.

This malaise has been so amplified over social media that some of us have been consumed by hate remarks spewed by unknown people and those served by political and religious platforms.

And they cut across all races and religions.

But there are many, many Malaysians out there helping each other regardless of race and religion every day. They include the police, army and firemen – service men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect us.

We often take this for granted, assuming it’s their job to do so, since that’s what they get paid for, but they have families too, and their job really isn’t easy.

Let’s hope their wellbeing becomes one of the more positive narratives to look forward to.

This National Day 2019, I wish to pay tribute to my fellow Malaysians, who I believe are inherently sharing, giving and colour blind.

This has been in our DNA since our nation was born in 1957 as the Federation of Malaya, and reborn as Malaysia in 1963. I urge Malaysians not to be baited by divisive forces, and instead, safeguard the diversity that defines us.

Our founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman understood the importance of all races coming together. The delegation that went to London to seek independence comprised all races, and Malaysia wouldn’t have been possible without Sabah and Sarawak.

And to reiterate, Sabah and Sarawak didn’t join Malaysia – those states helped form Malaysia!

Malaysia is a product of all races coming together to make diversity a reality, with Malay leaders steering the ship.

Sixty years later, and this beautiful land remains one of the best countries to live in. This is our home. To put it into context, most of us would be itching to reach home after an overseas assignment, or even a holiday trip. It’s telling when those who emigrated can’t even give up Malaysia.

Many are so often here one wonders if they truly ever left, and their many postings on their tanah air in social media on various issues indicate their hearts have never really left the country.

Malaysia is crying out for an upturn, because there are many good people around us, who have been doing good things.

We have many good examples to take from, so why be derailed by people who don’t matter, and by things that shouldn’t either?

Tunku laid the foundation of our great culturally diverse nation based on the spirit of compromise.

He may have faltered at times, but he did things for the greater good, and that can’t be denied. Much has been written about his contributions, most notably in The Star, where he was a columnist penning his thoughts well into his twilight years.

I had the privilege of meeting him when I was a reporter in Penang, where he stayed. He was also once the chairman of our company.

He always strove to buy hardware materials from my father’s stall – not even a shop – at Cheapside, off Chulia Street, because he could talk to my father in the Kedah accent. My 95-year-old dad was born in Kuah, Langkawi.

His aides preferred him shopping in more comfortable places, but he always insisted on returning to my father’s humble roadside stall. That was our Tunku.

Then, there is our prime minister twice over, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whose tryst with destiny means Malaysia has been given a second chance to become a model nation.

Love him or loathe him, Dr Mahathir’s role as nation builder is well-documented and his legacy will remain.

Then, there is the silent majority doing wondrous things in Malaysia and internationally. Many of them are Merdeka babies who grew up with the nation and witnessed its ups and downs.

Another Kedahan, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, is surely one of the most reclusive Malaysian businessmen.

He avoids social functions, even his own corporate events. He is more comfortable in his long sleeve batik shirt and sandals than his suit, which explains why he’s one of the most misunderstood tycoons.

He shuns the limelight and seldom speaks to the media, and much of his charity work also goes under the radar.

Syed Mokhtar couldn’t care less what people say about him. He has often found himself in the unenviable position of responding to unsavoury remarks made by those who have never even met him.

His critics say he has too many business interests, but none of the rich in Malaysia can match the magnitude of his charitable clout.

He grew up in a kampung with a Malay neighbour on one side, and a Chinese one on the other.

“We came from many places in different boats, but we are now in the same boat. We have to keep going to stay on course. We are all in the same tongkang (a native boat used in the East Indies in fishing and in local trading), ” he would often tell younger Malaysians.

He went to school in 1958, the first post-Merdeka batch of students who represented the breadth of Malaysian society.

He started his business when the New Economic Policy was launched in 1971, seizing all the economic opportunities it presented. Syed Mokhtar feels his country has been good to him, and he still has much to give.

The donations underscore his personal philosophy rooted in the Muslim values of taqwa (submission to God) and Ihsan (compassion).

I met the media-shy Syed Mokhtar for the first time some years ago, and was struck by his simplicity, charitable spirit and positivity.

He dropped out of school to work and support, not only his family, but also several poor neighbours. Many of us give when we have plenty, but he did it when he barely had anything. This became the starting point of the Albukhary Foundation.

His parents taught him to provide for the poor, with those lessons bearing fruit through his philanthropic values at 23, when he started a small business dealing in rice.

When he received his first monthly pay packet of RM1,500, his mother urged him to share half his earnings with the poor.

“So, I kept half for my family while the other half was donated to 15 needy families in my village,” he revealed in an interview.

When looking for Malaysians to list in the inaugural philanthropy issue in 2008, Forbes Asia selected Syed Mokhtar, and again and again thereafter.

By then, Syed Mokhtar was a business tycoon whose charitable contributions were felt across five continents.

As at end 2018, he had contributed over RM4bil, mainly to various education, health and welfare projects that have benefited hundreds of thousands of Malaysians

He has donated huge amounts of money to Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology University and Wawasan University, for example – and these universities have high non-Malay enrolment.

Earlier this month, the Albukhary Foundation came to the rescue of a bright young Sarawakian who had gained admission to study medicine in Cambridge, where each year, only 21 places are offered to international students to study medicine.

His father, a site supervisor, is the sole breadwinner, and with his mother a homemaker, the family simply couldn’t afford to accept the offer. Also, there was a 33% slash in government scholarships, which surely reduced his chances of being selected.

At school, when his friends enjoyed their holidays, he had work to pay his school fees, but he knew it would help reduce his parents’ burden.

Then he applied to private foundations for a scholarship. Despite his Cambridge offer, his application was rejected by 10 different foundations in Malaysia and abroad. He even wrote to Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world, never to hear from him. But he caught the attention of Syed Mokhtar.

The applicant is a Chinese boy from Kuching, but for Syed Mokhtar, he is a Malaysian who deserves a helping hand.

To benefit from these initiatives, the Foundation sets one main condition: you must be poor.

For example, when he found out that poor kidney patients in his home state Kedah couldn’t afford dialysis treatment, he built the full-fledged Albukhary Dialysis Centre, with medical and nursing staff to provide free medical treatment for them.

Located in the Sharifah Rokiah Centre of Excellence in Alor Setar, the dialysis centre has 18 machines and 40 patients, mainly rubber tappers and casual workers with no fixed income. Future plans include acquiring more machines and increasing patient capacity.

The Sharifah Rokiah Centre of Excellence, named after his beloved mother, is best known for its Albukhary International University.

Baby boomer Syed Mokhtar knows the future belongs to the youth. And he wants to pass on to them values that have stood by him through good times and bad. He calls them the 5As: Adab (good manners), Akhlaq (ethical), Aqidah (faith), Amanah (trust) and Amalan (practice). The 5As have become the core values of the Albukhary International University. They are also values he has shared with his children, who are set to follow in their father’s footsteps.

Flag fest: The Jalur Gemilang is flown everywhere in the country during National Day as Malaysians celebrate together as one.

COME Merdeka Day every year, the national flag is automatically raised in my neighbourhood.

They are the everyday people of different races and religions, who see themselves as nothing more than Malaysians. They are proud to be born here. They will even say that they consider themselves fortunate to be Malaysians, in this very blessed nation.

One expatriate, who lives a few doors away, has always hoisted the Jalur Gemilang, joining in the celebrations. There are millions of other Malaysians who do the same all over the country, regardless of them living in the cities, new villages or rubber estates.

But instead, what has been amplified on social media are a few isolated cases of people who have displayed the flag wrongly, or worse, printed it wrongly.

It doesn’t help that there are those who pushed the race and religion agenda, unwittingly or intentionally. In their suspicious minds, they’d like to believe there’s an orchestrated plan to plant these national flags upside down all over the country.

In one case, it was revealed that the national flag was flown wrongly because of the ignorance of a foreign worker. I am sure such blunders have happened in previous national day celebrations, but this time, there is a greater sense of misgiving.

Every day, Malaysians of all races help each other. I’m sure we have come together to help victims of a road accident even, but these kind acts largely go unnoticed. What’s more tragic is, some of us choose to shout about isolated tensions involving Malaysians of all races.

There is an implied narrative at play here, that since the new government came to power, there are non-Malays who have dared question and challenge the Malay institutions. Likewise, there are Chinese who can’t appreciate the beauty of Malay culture and practices, the national language and positive values of Islam.

Even more embarrassing, some can’t even communicate with their fellow Malaysians in Bahasa Malaysia effectively. I always find it strange that migrant workers can speak better. They know they must speak Bahasa Malaysia, at least serviceably, because it’s a matter of survival.

However, I need to point out that many Chinese signed up for Malay Literature at school and university, too, including this writer, and there are many other Chinese who teach the Bahasa Malaysia subject in school.

Basically, Malaysia is a country of 32 million people, yet we can celebrate National Day collectively after six decades, because we have been able to hold the nation together as one.

Ours is a complex, plural society. It can’t compare with countries that are homogenous in their racial composition, or where the minority race is too small, because that only means there really isn’t much political impact. There will always be those with more extreme views within each community, but we shouldn’t be consumed by them because that will only legitimise their purported mainstream leanings. We must always treat them as the minority and highlight the moderate majority instead.

They have become more visible and louder, simply because they can get heard through the social media platform. Many put themselves on Facebook and YouTube, ignorantly assuming they are just talking to their own community, without realising such things can reach a global audience in minutes.

In the process, they find themselves getting arrested, and often, their bravado ends when they find themselves in a lock-up. A three-day remand can do wonders for self-reflection, and most walk out meekly and feel remorseful.

It doesn’t matter whether they express their hate speeches in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese or Tamil, thinking it will only reach their intended audience, because in the digital age, it will reach others. So, these hate mongers must face the consequences of their toxic content.

But there are reasons to be concerned in such free-for-all exchanges, because racism around us and on social media has never been this rife. This is made worse by those who occupy political and religious platforms, who propagate race dominance and supremacy.

Their connotations and down-right dismissal of other races are dangerous, to put it mildly. Such a narrative is divisive, sows the seeds of discontent and drives a bigger wedge between races.

Then there are those who have put the blame entirely on the new government, suggesting that since they came to power, the Malays and Islam are under siege.

None of these assumptions, or agenda, considered the Malays being the most populous race, especially against the shrinking Chinese and Indian communities.

The Malays form and dominate all aspects of society, including Rulers, the official religion, armed forces, police, civil service, and the Bumiputera affirmative action policy. It’s impossible for non-Malays to mess with the status quo, or for that matter, dare challenge for a change.

Besides the emotional response, not many have come out with racist remarks about the looting of billions of ringgit from institutions involving mainly Malays.

In Malaysia, we must choose to highlight the best among us, the moderate majority from all ethnic groups and religious beliefs – and never give credence to the few who peddle exclusive, extreme and hurtful views. We must accept that we can never be the same. None of us can choose our race or birthplace. Like it or not, we were born here, live here and will most likely die here, too. Regardless of us being Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban or Kadazan, we are stuck with each other.

It might be news to some, but I can’t go back to China. I don’t have relatives there. None that I know of, at least. And contrary to many who think every Chinese speaks Mandarin, I don’t.

And China certainly doesn’t need another mouth to feed. They have more than a billion people, and don’t be duped by the fake news that China is issuing green cards to overseas Chinese.

It has been discredited and dismissed. Yet, it seems to have resurfaced again, and non-credible and unethical news sites are not helping. The mood in the country isn’t downbeat. Most Malaysians are rational people — they are too busy earning a living to be immersed in racist chatter.

None of us can choose the race of our customers, our Grab and taxi drivers, our doctors and nurses, our blood donors and our colleagues.

Politicians are squarely to blame for this, because in their desperation to win votes, the easiest way, unfortunately, is to play the race and religion cards. It’s sad that some of us aren’t thinking straight, and have allowed ourselves to be influenced and exploited.

And not wanting to have their thunder stolen, there are those who use the religion platform to preach hatred. It’s no surprise that none of our holy texts promote pride or prejudice, so it’s surprising that these leaders, claiming to be men of peace and experts in their field, don’t realise the adverse effects of their actions. It hasn’t brought Malaysians together, but divided us further.

The worst of human nature is on full parade now on social media. Where is the good and uplifting that exist in all of us?

Leave the people alone, because most of us can co-exist and respect each other together.

Those of us who live in a more diverse atmosphere, take a much broader view of issues, because we understand and respect race relations better.

Talk of a dominant race is unhealthy and unnecessary. Look at the flipside for a bit – Malays who live in Europe and United States are surely uncomfortable with the hurtful remarks by white supremacists.

Many ignorant Westerners like to equate Islam with terrorism because they choose to validate groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda – who are the extreme minority – as representing Islam, instead of the majority 1.6 billion Muslims who are peace-loving individuals.

Superfluous assumptions, like casting prejudice on Muslim women who wear the hijab as being Muslim extremists, reflect such shallow minds.

It’s common for Arab Christians, for example, to dress like their Muslim sisters, because of cultural and local conditions and customs.

Likewise, it’s ridiculous to accuse women who wear skirts and don’t cover their heads of enticing men to commit sex crimes.

A plural Malaysia is an asset for Malaysia. The ability of Malaysians to communicate in many languages is a prize to be proud of, and surely, we want to tell the world that we can handle race and religious relations well after six decades.

The independence story is about the major races coming together and working towards it. That is the historical fact, and Tunku Abdul Rahman understood it.

The Malaysia success story today, 62 years on from its birth, is about all races playing their roles by binding this blessed nation together. It’s not about dominance or supremacy at all.

This rhetoric and religious talk won’t help uplift Malaysia. And there couldn’t be a better time for us to need the Malaysia Forward story.

Malaysia is home to all Malaysians, which not only includes the Malays, Chinese and Indians, but also the people of Sabah and Sarawak, and other minorities, too. Without our Malaysians, there is no Malaysia. It’s that simple, and we should never forget that.

Difficult guest: Zakir should get the message by now, says the writer, and drive straight to the airport.

LET’S make this easy for controversial preacher Zakir Naik to understand better – he is a guest in Malaysia, but his presence is making his host family very uncomfortable.

The family members are squabbling daily over whether he should be allowed to continue staying in their house. The disputes are tearing at the host family, and in some ways, have forced them to take a stand. His stay here has been divisive and has led to much unhappiness.

There have been numerous unnecessary flareups and, consequently, sad and angry faces. And all this fuss because of a foreigner. Some want him to stay, while others feel he has done enough damage and, so, should just leave.

Zakir must surely be within earshot of this bickering, but he has chosen to ignore the family’s predicament, putting on his arrogant smirk instead.

Adding insult to injury, he has now even declared to the family that he has a right to be a guest in their home now, lecturing them on family roots and history.

He has selfishly and obstinately refused to move, insisting he has done no wrong and has questioned why he should leave the family house, forgetting through it all that he’s merely a guest.

Meanwhile, there are others – those with political interests, specifically – who are egging him on to stay put.

They have assured him of their backing, in the hopes the home will collapse and its family members will end up in a bitter feud with harmful consequences.

That deviant thought has been planted in his head, and it might even encourage him further to put up a fight and even cross the line again.

Instead of just talking about religion, his area of expertise, Zakir has gone on to give a discourse on Malaysian history and politics, according to his warped interpretations, of course.

Conveniently, though, he has overlooked the fundamental point of the house being built by family members of various races and faiths.

The house turns 62 years old on Aug 31, and all its family members are looking forward to that celebration.

In setting up that home, some members have had to look for money to build and maintain it, while others put their lives on the line to safeguard everyone’s interest and wellbeing. Then there are those who work on the economy so there’s food on the table for the entire household.

Every member has a role and part to play, and all regard the house which they built as their home – forevermore.

Everyone accepts one another as brothers and sisters, and as is with every family, we have our differences and quarrels, but we remain together.

Zakir, please make it easy for everyone. It will much easier for the Prime Minister – as head of the family – if you would just leave the home.

Despite your offensive and divisive ways, he has defended you. But surely it must have pained him to see the family members quarrel over you. The PM has not spoken, but his daughter has.

Malaysians are very nice people, and we are often neither very direct nor confrontational. I guess pantun, puisi and peribahasa, are foreign to you, so we’ll leave that alone.

But you should get the message by now. You have chosen Saudi Arabia as your permanent residence, so please book your ticket home. A full citizenship in Saudi Arabia is better than being a mere guest in Malaysia.

And also, in your quiet moments, you should perhaps ask yourself and reflect why is it that so many countries – including those in the Middle East, presumably – don’t want you.

No country, to our informed knowledge, has offered you a place in their land.

If offers do come in, please share the good news with us Malaysians, so we may rejoice and celebrate the prospect of, not only you leaving, but of having host nations clamouring to offer you a home.

There will be another Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, when we can let our ministers deliberate more pressing matters such as the economy and strengthening our ringgit. We could also do well by allowing the Education Minister to unveil his plan for coding lessons for our kids. This must surely be our priority, instead of wasting time on inconsequential issues and individuals.

By the way, there are at least four airlines which fly from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah.

This is how bad plastic waste on tourist-favourite Tioman Island can get. – Reef Check Malaysia

THE Kinabatangan river in Sabah is one of the best places to view wildlife in Asia, what with its dense population of animals such as orang utan, hornbills, proboscis monkeys, pygmy elephants, langurs, wild cats, crocodiles and other amazing creatures.

My maiden trip to the interiors of Borneo, on the eve of National Day in 2017, changed my life immensely and permanently. Initially, I was reluctant to make that trip because going into the jungle with bare-bones accommodation was not my idea of a well-deserved vacation.

But being ahead of the General Election in 2018, and driven by my desire to find out more about the parliamentary constituency of the infamous and controversial Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

I fell in love with the place immediately. From that moment on, the city boy in me decided that the jungle and sea – with their flora and fauna – make better destination options than banal and homogeneous shopping malls.

From Kinabatangan, I went to the incredible ancient rainforests of the Danum Valley, one of the last untouched pieces of land on earth.

I lost track of the number of orang utan I saw each day while trekking deep in the jungle. I also couldn’t remember the number of blood-sucking leeches that feasted on me – ecotourism at its best!

But here’s the sad story – I also lost track of the amount of plastic debris floating in the Kinabatangan, drifting with the river’s current.

It was painfully embarrassing for me because, apart from a Malaysian couple, I was the only other Malaysian on the boat cruise and just before that, we had been proudly promoting Malaysia to the others, some of whom had come from as far as Chile and Italy.

Lo and behold, we saw plastic items like bottles, food wrappers and even beer bottles floating by us. Surely this shouldn’t be happening in one of the world’s most beautiful and biodiverse areas.

As I made my complaints known to the local lodge operator, I learned that the villagers living along the river were just as guilty of littering.

It never dawned on them that their indiscriminate practice of dumping all this plastic would hurt them economically, as many of them have profited from the ecotourism there.

It was a different story in the Danum Valley though, where its inaccessibility and the restriction of visitors have kept the jungles clean. In fact, I don’t recall stumbling on any plastic refuse on my treks there.

The plastic horror surfaced once more on my trip to some isolated islands in East Kalimantan. I travelled for three hours on an uncovered boat from the small Indonesian town of Tarakan (an hour’s flight from Tawau) to Derawan.

The Derawan Islands comprise 31 islands, including Maratua, Sangalaki and Kakaban, which has numerous submerged reefs and islets. Located in the Sulawesi Sea, these islands are so rich in marine life I could see rays, sharks, turtles and barracuda from my room! And out in the deep sea, whale sharks and manta rays are aplenty.

Only simple hotel facilities exist on these islands and it’s certainly not a place for well-heeled luxury seekers. This is not the Maldives.

The air-conditioning in my room wasn’t working, and there was absolutely no Wifi, not even in the reception area. Meals comprised just three items and rice.

Most of the time on these islands, I felt like Robinson Crusoe, from the story of an 18th century traveller who was marooned on an island, because a few villagers apart, there were just no tourists – the place was largely desolate.

But despite the acute isolation, it was heart-wrenching to still see plastics, of all kinds, washing up on the shores of these beautiful locales.

They were an eyesore, but I was more concerned about the sea creatures mistaking some of the plastic for food. That now-renowned image of a straw sticking out of a turtle’s nose must now surely be burned into our brains.

For a multitude of known and unknown reasons, we seem to be losing the battle against the plastic menace. Last December, I trekked up the volcanic mountains of Rwanda in Africa in search of gorillas, and despite the wilderness, I still stumbled upon discarded plastic bottles.

Unfortunately, plastic isn’t the only thing damaging our oceans, but it’s by far the worst offender.

According to a report, experts estimated that some eight million metric tonnes of plastic waste enter our oceans annually.

“Some micro-plastics – bits of plastic that are less than five millimetres long – also find their way to the sea and these end up getting ingested by fish and other marine animals.

“Experts say if things don’t change, there will be more plastic than fish by 2050. This isn’t inevitable. A change in public opinion about single-use plastic and various initiatives and technologies are trying to repair the harm done thus far and turn the tide on plastics in the ocean, ” it was reported.

We are in a crisis. It’s something that concerns ecotourists and adventurers because Malaysians don’t care about plastic pollution, and we are a major contributor without many of us knowing it.

According to a 2015 study in Science Magazine, Malaysia is the eighth worst country worldwide for plastic waste.

The study, which named China, Indonesia and the Philippines as the top polluters, estimated Malaysia produced almost one million tonnes of mismanaged plastic waste (waste not recycled or properly disposed of) in 2010.

This must stop. And the time to act is now.

Protesters in protective gear holding up a symbolic yellow umbrella and an American flag while marching through the Sha Tin District in Hong Kong earlier in the month. Sights such as these are fuelling speculation about foreign involvement in the ongoing protests. — AP

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and likewise, in the pursuit of democracy, there will always be casualties.

ONE of the most avid speculations about the Hong Kong protests is whether the CIA is involved, and this talk is fuelled, no less, by warnings from the Chinese to the US to keep out of Hong Kong’s affairs.

Last week, former HK chief executive Tung Chee-hwa was more ominous, openly accusing the US and Taiwan of orchestrating “well-organised” recent protests.

The first retaliatory strike from China on Taiwan was the ban on solo travellers, involving 47 mainland cities to Taiwan, which will cost the island state US$900mil (RM3.75bil) in tourism dollars by January.

Let’s look at these accusations rationally, though. It’s impossible for the CIA to hire such a massive crowd in Hong Kong.

The anger is real, though, and the spontaneity of the protests speaks for itself.

There has been growing frustration among the people, especially the younger generation, over what they see as the decline in living standards, and many now don’t see a future in the city.

The amendment to the Extradition Law has touched a nerve among HK citizens because many perceive they would not get justice or due legal rights under China’s mainland rule.

Let’s put it this way, the judicial independence in China isn’t ranked highly by international standards, and even Chinese nationals complain about it.

HK citizens are concerned that their city will be like any other mainland Chinese city, where the citizens’ freedom could be compromised, although one wonders how many of these protesters truly believe they would ever get extradited to China in the first place.

The Bill is, essentially, a manifestation of the frustrations that have built up, and its timing allowed for that volcanic eruption of anger.

It’s unlikely the young protesters were aware that HK has, in fact, extradition agreements with 20 countries, including Britain and the United States. From China’s point of view, why can’t there be one with the mainland?

Against this backdrop, with students on summer holidays, the perfect concoction was created, building up a massive protest for an international audience.

The timing couldn’t have been worse for HK chief executive Carrie Lam to push the Bill through – this is the season of protests, coinciding with the anniversaries of the Tiananmen Square incident and British handover of HK to China on July 1, 1997.

By now, it’s clear that Lam is a technocrat who isn’t politically savvy, and her lack of learned leadership during a crisis shows her shortcomings in being the best person to helm HK, even though China continues to back her.

The Bill has been suspended since June 15 until further notice, but not withdrawn. She has said the legislation process was a complete failure and that “the Bill is dead”, but she hasn’t enacted any legislative process to withdraw the proposal either.

So protests will likely continue, but nothing is free, and that includes the business of organising well-planned weekly protests.

Over the past month, the media has been reporting that groups involved in the protests have received significant funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), “a CIA soft-power cut-out that has played a critical role in innumerable US regime-change operations, ” according to writer Alexander Rubinstein.

The report claimed that the NED has four main branches, at least two of which are active in Hong Kong: the Solidarity Center (SC) and National Democratic Institute (NDI).

“The latter has been active in Hong Kong since 1997, and NED funding for Hong Kong-based groups has been consistent, ” Louisa Greve, vice president of programmes for Asia, Middle East and North Africa, was quoted.

While NED funding for groups in Hong Kong goes back to 1994, 1997 was when the British returned the territory to China, it was reported.

The report said in 2018, NED granted US$155, 000 (RM645, 885) to SC and US$200, 000 (RM833, 400) to NDI for work in Hong Kong, and US$90, 000 (RM375, 000) to Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor (HKHRM), which isn’t a branch of NED, but a partner in Hong Kong. Between 1995 and 2013, HKHRM received more than US$1.9mil (RM7.9mil) in funds from the NED.

This isn’t the first time the NED’s name has cropped up either.

During the 2014 Occupy protests, the spectre of NED in the protests and the foreign philosophies it represented also came up.

The NED was set up in 1983 to channel grants for “promoting democracy” and it’s said that it receives US$100mil (RM416mil) annually from the relevant agencies.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has also been accused of funding the protests. He has taken it a step further by meeting US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington DC to discuss the Bill and the city’s situation.

Lai is the owner of Next Digital, which publishes both the pro-democracy Apple Daily and Next Magazine, among others.

Predictably, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong issued a statement saying it has lodged a solemn representation at the US Consulate General in Hong Kong to ask the US to stop its “mistaken words and deeds”.

A spokesperson for the local Commissioner’s Office said that it strongly opposed foreign forces interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs.

“The US side clearly knows who Jimmy Lai is, what his stance is, and what his role is in Hong Kong society. Top US government officials have ulterior motives and sent a seriously wrong signal when they queued up to meet such a person at this sensitive time of Hong Kong – we express our strong discontent and opposition, ” it said.

In 2014, the South China Morning Post reported that Lai spent millions funding the Occupy Central protests.

The SCMP reported that Lai’s group offered extensive advice – including propaganda material – to the Occupy Central organisers, whom Lai dismissed in private as “idealist scholars” who “couldn’t make the cut without help”.

The emails were leaked by the same person who sent documents detailing the Next Media chairman’s political donations to various pan-democrats two weeks ago. It isn’t clear how the documents were obtained, though.

One of the exchanges between Lai and his top aide, Mark Simon, indicates that Lai spent some HK$3mil (RM1.6mil) to HK$3.5mil (RM1.8mil) to help the plebiscite. The email did not detail how the money was spent, only mentioning that the costs included “advertisements and billboards”.

In a rebuttal, Lai said that while he had donated large sums of money to politicians in the pro-democracy camp, he had not given a cent to the co-founders of Occupy Central. His newspaper, though, had given the movement discounts for advertisements.

China cannot be faulted for seeing shadows of foreign influence in the protests. It doesn’t help that protesters, pressing for independence, are waving colonial British and US flags, and what began as peaceful protests has now degenerated into riots, a term the demonstrators have also challenged and protested.

There is much irony in the HK protests. The late kung fu legend, Bruce Lee, has become an icon in the protests because of his philosophical advice to “be formless, shapeless, like water, ” in his role as Li Tsung, a martial-arts instructor in Longstreet, a US TV series.

Basically, the protesters should take on the HK police with a new tactic: formless, shapeless protests in scattered parts of the territory, aimed at wearing the authorities down.

But older folks like me would probably remember a better scene in the movie Fist Of Fury, where he kicked and smashed a sign at the gate of Huangpu Park which read, “No dogs and Chinese allowed”. The park in Shanghai was closed to the Chinese between 1890 and 1928.

It has been said, according to some reports, period photographs show a sign listing 10 regulations, the first of which was that “The Gardens are reserved for the Foreign Community”, with the fourth being “Dogs and bicycles are not admitted”. Any way you cut it; the Chinese weren’t allowed in the foreign settlement.

What has happened in HK is that the protests’ demands have grown exponentially, bordering on calls to be independent and free from China. Tragically, it has also become more violent by the day.

In calling for freedom of speech, citizens who disagreed with the protesters have found themselves beaten up, which seems to go against the grain.

When violence committed on the police and those who disagree are embraced or encouraged as part of a democratic process, and the destruction of public properties is accepted as a minor price for freedom, then something has gone badly wrong.

IT’S a little more than a month away from our National Day celebrations, when the nation turns 62, but ironically, instead of proudly celebrating being Malaysian, some of us are continuing to preach about race and religion.

In negotiating with the British to earn our independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman took with him Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Tun V.T. Sambanthan on that fateful trip to London.

Tan was the founder and first president of the MCA and Sambanthan, the MIC president.

The multi-racial team was to show the British that people from different ethnic groups were united, effectively making the entourage Team Malaya on its trip to London.

With that display of solidarity, the British agreed to return freedom to Malaya, even though the Alliance’s (comprising Umno, MCA and MIC) ability to govern the country remained in doubt.

But six decades later, we have proven that Malaysians can keep the nation at peace, except for that blot in 1969.

And even with the collapse of the Barisan Nasional in the 2018 general election, we can hold our heads high that the contenders and voters respected the democratic process and allowed the transition to take place without pandemonium.

Indeed, we have every reason to be proud of ourselves – we can show the world that for all the difficulties and challenges the country has faced, Malaysians have always succeeded in showing tremendous patience, restraint and acceptance of each other.

But we still can and should do better.

The question, though, is, do we still want to emphasise race and religion after six decades in a bid to win votes in the next elections, and why would anyone want to play this card and stoke the fires of controversy?

According to 2017 figures, Malaysia has a population of more than 31 million people, of which bumiputera comprises 61.7% (Malays and indigenous peoples), Chinese 20.8%, Indians 6.2%, others 0.9%, non-citizens 10% (living in Malaysia).

Muslims make up 61.3%, Buddhists 19.8%, Christians 9.2%, Hindus 6.3%, Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 1.3%, others 0.4%, none 0.8%, unspecified 1% (2010 est.)

According to the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Mohamed Hanipa Maidin, based on Public Service Commission statistics from 2015 until June 2018, Malays made up the highest number (79.66%) of people in the civil service.

“This is followed by Sabah bumiputeras at (7.84%), Sarawak (5.59%), Indians (3.21%), other races (1.84%), Chinese (1.6%) and natives (0.25%),” he reportedly said.

Looking at the country’s 1.6 million-strong civil service, Bernama reported in 2016 about then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim saying that as of December 2014, the ethnic composition of the civil service was as follows: 78.8% Malays, bumiputera Sabah (6.1%), bumiputera Sarawak (4.8 %), Chinese (5.2%), Indians (4.1 %), other bumiputera (0.3%) and others (0.7%).

In the case of the powerful police force, then Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said in 2016 that the police need more non-Malays to enlist as they currently comprise only 5% of the 133,212-strong force.

“Of the total, 80.23% (106,871) are Malays, while Chinese make up only 1.96% (2,615), Indians 3.16% (4,209), Punjabis 0.21% (275) and others 14.44% (19,242),” he told Parliament.

The Malaysian Army, Royal Malaysian Navy and Royal Malaysian Air Force are also overwhelmingly populated by Malays.

According to a news report, the Malaysian army comprises 98.3% Malays and only 0.2% Chinese, with officers making up 96.2%, out of which 1.4% are Chinese.

The bottom line is that Malays and Muslims could never be under threat – that is just a ridiculous assumption. But that hasn’t stopped Umno, PAS and even Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia politicians from repeating it.

PPBM chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has invited the Malays to unite under PPBM, saying this was important as more Malay parties were being formed, which in turn reduces the potential of Malay parties winning in the elections.

Adding further, Dr Mahathir said the existence of the four Malay political parties, namely PPBM, PKR, PAS, and Umno, was sufficient in championing the Malay agenda, advising against the formation of more Malay-based parties.

Every one of these Malay-based political parties has called for Malay unity, giving the impression that the community is under siege and had better come together in one of these parties to safeguard their interests, including carrying out affirmative action.

The fear mentality is ingrained in the minds of the Malays, and the common bogeyman has always been the DAP for Umno and PAS.

The reality is that the number of Chinese – the second largest ethnic group after the Malays – in Malaysia will drop to third place after bumiputeras and foreign migrant workers by 2030, read a news report in 2016.

A huge dip in the birth rate of the Chinese to 1.4 babies per family in 2015 from 7.4 in 1957, and a sharp rise in the number of foreign workers, are now threatening the Chinese’ position as the second lar­gest grouping in Malaysia.

The report, quoting projected data from the Department of Statistics, said the population percentage of local ethnic Chinese would shrink to 19.6% in 2030 from 24.6% in 2010 and 21.4% in 2015.

The Chinese percentage is also projected to fall further to 18.9% by 2035.

In the report, Chief Statistician Datuk Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman said that although the Chinese population will increase to 7.1 million people in 2040 from 6.6 million now, the percentage compared to the Malays and Indians might decline to 18.4% in 2040.

Basically, there are now more foreigners than Indians, and soon, there will be more foreigners than Chinese.

At some point, the population of Indonesians, Bangladeshis, Nepalese, Rohingyas and others will increase, and their growing presence will have an impact on the demography.

Our politicians must be committed to a multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia because our unique plural society, for all its complexities, has proven to be an asset to this country.

Malaysia should be celebrating this multi-racial and multi-religious make up – it shouldn’t be done merely as branding exercises for Tourism Malaysia.

We need our leaders to instil an inclusive approach in Malaysians, and if politicians only want votes from the Malay and Muslim community based on issues of race and religion, then we are hurtling towards a disastrous future.

What we need is to remain committed towards Malaysia as a plural nation for the country to practise progressive and multiracial politics.

Malaysians need not fear each other, but instead, should be mindful of racist, religiously extreme and corrupt politicians, who can come in all skin colours.

Malaysia belongs to all of us of various ethnic groups and religions. This is our Malaysia. Kami Anak Anak Malaysia.

Contrary to the belief of some, the frequent use of racist slurs doesn’t make it right in any context, and it’s high time it is eradicated.

MOST of us have become desensitised to racist airheads and bigoted politicians, those who sporadically heckle the Chinese to “balik tongsan” (go back to China) and remind them to shut up and be grateful.

Failure to do so would mean being questioned and maligned with “apa lagi Cina mau?” (what more do the Chinese want?), as one newspaper infamously headlined a few years back.

Very rarely do we hear of calls to “balik India,” presumably because the size of the community is smaller, but the use of derogatory terms to describe Indians is becoming more rampant.

I have never heard of anyone shouting “balik Bugis” or “balik Aceh”, though.

So, there was a sense of déjà vu last week when US President Donald Trump intensified his attacks on four progressive Democratic congresswomen, demanding they be “sent back”, which is akin to the “balik tongsan” slur used here.

The orange man had referred to representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (Michigan).

Last week, Trump tweeted that such lawmakers should “go back” to their countries if they were dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the United States.

All four women are American citizens, and only Omar was born elsewhere. Her family reportedly emigrated from a Kenyan refugee camp when she was a child, though she is originally from Somalia.

Trump being Trump, managed to whip up a racist storm of epic proportions, with his supporters hysterically chanting, “Send her back!”, referencing non-Caucasian women politicians at his rally.

US presidential hopeful Kamala Harris has also found herself a victim of racist tweets, including those from Trump. She was born in Oakland to an Indian mother and Jamaican father, and is eligible to run for president but has been attacked for not being black enough.

Trump’s racist tone seems to have encouraged his Republican supporters to pursue this vile approach, exemplified by his aide Kellyanne Conway asking a reporter about his ethnic heritage at a White House press conference.

Andrew Feinberg, a reporter for Breakfast Media, a website about politics and technology, had asked Conway, “If the president was not telling these four congresswomen to return to their supposed countries of origin, to which countries was he referring?”

Conway paused and then asked him, “What’s your ethnicity?”

“Why is that relevant?” Feinberg replied.

That was the appropriate response, and Feinberg soon after added, “My own ethnicity is not relevant to the question I’m asking.”

The push by Trump has shocked many Americans, as it seems to have gained traction among his Caucasian supporters, especially those in the mid-west states.

Most Republican politicians have chosen to turn the other way, claiming they haven’t read Trump’s tweets, although the local news has become world news.

What happened in the United States really isn’t that much different from what’s happening in Malaysia, as politicians here find it easier to amplify race and religion to garner support, especially the crucial Malay votes.

Trump uses the non-whites as the bogeyman, to create fear and a sense of insecurity among lesser educated white people, to suggest that their jobs are being taken away by immigrants – when the reality is that many white people are reluctant to take on “difficult” jobs.

Immigrants, in the mind of Trump, simply means non-whites. His wife, Melania, is from Slovenia but because she is white, in his mind she wouldn’t be placed in the same category as Mexicans or South Americans.

Ivana, Trump’s first wife, was born in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic); Trump himself has acknowledged his German ancestry and is proud of it.

Like Trump, the three women lawmakers were born in the United States, even though their ancestry can be traced back to other countries.

In a nutshell, Trump won’t be telling anyone of Caucasian stock to “go back”, even if they have serious criminal records.

And let’s hope he won’t be making the “send her home” chant his campaign battle cry.

Likewise, it’s beyond some politicians here to accept that “balik tongsan” is simply illogical, because, similar to the other “foreign” ethnic communities with roots here including the Indians and Indonesians, we were born here and this great country will always be home, the place we will invariably be laid to rest in when our time is up.

Besides, these three nations – China, India and Indonesia – have enough people and they certainly wouldn’t welcome any Malaysians, whose only link to these them is their ancestral lineage.

As we celebrate our country’s national day next month, and Malaysia Day in September, it’s perhaps time for laws to be legislated to make it an offence to use racist remarks.

A commission to promote race relations is necessary to nip this malaise in the bud.

A good place to start will be Parliament, where racist remarks are shamelessly used by Members of Parliament who are far from honourable.

The reality is that whatever the colour of our skin, the blood that runs through our veins remains the same.

So in time of need, as we lie on the hospital bed, we won’t be asking where the blood came from.

Hong Kong. -Bloomberg filepic

IT’S lunch time in Hong Kong, but the soya sauce chicken rice seller at Queen’s Road in Shek Tong Tsui is looking distressed as the crowd isn’t up to expectations.

Rental is high in Hong Kong and customers are obliged to share tables in small eateries like the one I was in.

Once eagle-eyed restaurant owners spot the conclusion of a meal, patrons are swiftly handed their bills, subtly suggesting they leave the premises to make way for incoming customers. Otherwise, they’d earn short shrift from irate staff.

Life is hard in HK and most residents feel that it has become much harder.

The older ones are more tolerant and patient because they have lived through the country’s high and low points. They include those born in China who came to the island with their parents.

Retired civil servants complain of promotions bypassing them because the top posts were reserved for the whites under British colonial rule. They felt humiliated and have never forgotten this marginalised treatment.

The young ones are becoming angrier now. They see HK deteriorating, reflected in their inability to buy a flat the size of a car park lot, because something even that small would probably cost millions of ringgit.

HK is a crowded city where space is at a premium. Space, meaning a hole in the sky. Landed properties are for the super rich in a land where being rich alone isn’t enough.

Regular visitors to HK will tell you that the streets are filled with people for a simple reason: it can be claustrophobic living in a 400sq foot – or less – flat.

HK residents sometimes joke that they need to leave their flat to provide “privacy” for newly married children who sometimes can’t afford their own homes and still need to live with their parents.

“The walls are too thin, and it is best we give them some space, you understand what I am saying, right?” said my HK friend as we chuckled about the reference while dining on dim sum.

The waiting period for public housing is five years, if you are lucky, and it’s not uncommon to see an entire family living in one room in many parts of downtown HK. Apparently, more than 200,000 people live in subdivided homes.

Forget politics for a minute and let’s talk facts. An international survey reportedly showed HK sliding 12 places to an embarrassing 41 as a liveable city for Asian expats, its worst ranking in a decade.

“We call ourselves Asia’s world city, but Asians have given us the thumbs down as a liveable city. That’s a paradox that should shame us,” the South China Morning Post (SCMP) newspaper reported.

Over the last two decades, HK people have found themselves priced out of the home market. The cost of living has gone up, but the standard of living has dropped sharply.

The smog has worsened and there are regular reports of hospitals overflowing in the winter months every year, ushering in the routine flu outbreak.

The competition for space is a serious concern in HK. The resentment towards China is simply because people in HK have found it hard to compete with the deluge of mainlanders.

Each time I go to HK, I can’t get past the sight of long queues of people from China – with deep pockets – at luxury goods outlets at Central.

“Last year, 65 million tourists flooded Hong Kong. That’s only about 10 million fewer than for the whole of the United States. Almost 80% who came were mainlanders, most of them day trippers who swarmed residential areas to buy groceries, ruining the quality of life for locals.

“How can life quality improve if you add the four million mainlanders who come monthly, on average, effectively raising Hong Kong’s population to well over 11 million?” pondered columnist Michael Chugani in the SCMP.

Milk powder is a favourite item of the mainlanders when it comes to groceries because of food safety concerns back home. Every mum and pop shop in HK seems to share a similar inventory.

HK people are loud and opinionated. And often crude and crass even, especially, when speaking in Cantonese.

This is a city of very hardworking and motivated people. It’s commonplace for a person to be doing two or three jobs to ensure ends are met, but these people also acknowledge the city has long passed its prime, with stats indicating its lost position as one of Asia’s top cities.

It has surrendered its edge as a financial hub to Shanghai and even nearby Shenzhen.

Chronicling the events of the last two decades reveals how those fortunes changed. Imagine that in 1997, China was very much reliant on HK, largely because the global superpower had not yet made it into the ranks of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which was stunting and limiting its export trade.

So HK’s position as a channel for entrepôt trade was exploited to deliver mainland-made goods to the rest of the world via its ports, and crucially, by circumventing the WTO’s trade restrictions. But that all changed when China entered the organisation in 2001, and from then HK began to play a diminishing role. The island went from handling half the republic’s trade in 1997 to a measly 12% today.

“In terms of total size and wealth, Hong Kong has also shrunk relative to China, which has experienced more than three decades of astoundingly high economic growth. In 1997, Hong Kong’s economy was one-fifth the size of China’s, and its per capita income was 35 times higher. By 2018, Hong Kong’s economy was barely one-thirtieth the size of China’s. Hong Kong is still richer, but the gap is narrowing, with its per capita income now five times higher than China’s,” claimed the New York Times International.

And to exemplify China’s newly accrued wealth, on a trip to Guangzhou, my jaw dropped when I saw the homes of the mainland Chinese in a sprawling gated property built by Forest City.

The HK film industry has nearly collapsed. With only the TV dramas in Cantonese keeping some actors home, most HK movie stars and singers have moved to China, where they are better paid and command bigger audiences.

Some still struggle to speak fluent Mandarin and drop their Cantonese accent, but most have successfully made the transition.

Knowing the realities of the huge China market, and not wanting to offend their audience, most of these big names opted to stay away from the recent HK protests. Pro-Beijing Jackie Chan was lambasted for pleading ignorance of the protest march.

Still, HK has its assets, though. It has an efficient administration system and remains an important channel. In China, tighter capital control measures are making it increasingly difficult to access outside money, the SCMP said.

“Hong Kong is also a top offshore yuan trading centre, leading the way for wider use of the Chinese currency in trade and finance – a priority for Beijing as it pushes for the yuan’s internationalization.

“… Hong Kong can also do more down the road. It can foster an ecosystem for the yuan currency, developing derivatives and indexes to convince people to hold the yuan in larger amounts,” Oliver Rui, a professor of finance and accounting in China, was quoted.

But China needs to do more to secure the faith of the islanders.

HK people understand and accept they are a part of China. There is no turning back and nothing is going to change that.

Hoisting British flags may be the manifestation of frustration for the idealistic young, but it won’t change their destiny.

At the same time, China needs to wake up to the fact that only 3.1% of those aged between 18 and 29 in HK see themselves as broadly Chinese (China nationality). This compares to 31% in 1997, according to a report based on a survey by the University of Hong Kong.

And we know that many of those who took part in the recent street protests included secondary school children, some not yet even 18 years old.

Even though China has overtaken HK, particularly from an economic standpoint, Beijing needs to foster and maintain a sense of inclusion, especially when the islanders don’t feel they are a part of China.

There was a time when HK residents laughed at mainlanders, calling them the disparaging “Ah Chan”, or village simpletons. However, mainlanders are growing richer and more powerful now. But like all good “bosses”, China needs to treat the island’s residents with respect, and it needs to motivate and win over their hearts and minds. China must make them proud to be Chinese citizens.

Farcical political situations and a depleting economy. If there’s a time to rally the troops to thwart the country’s follies, the upcoming National Day looks the opportune moment.

WHILE I was in Europe a few years ago, a Spanish waitress asked me about the corruption and racism that has ravaged Malaysia.

I was a little startled. Few waitresses would have asked guests such politically related questions, but because I was a regular, and friendly (I’d like to think so), she must have felt comfortable enough to raise the subject.

The only thing is, I was not in the mood and felt it was out of line. I was on holiday and the last thing I wanted to talk about was politics. While in Australia last month, a China-born driver asked me about Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and of course, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

I didn’t even tell him that I was from the media. If I did, there would have been no end to the idle chatter on a long trip outside Sydney.

It was unprofessional of him to bring up politics and luckily, we didn’t touch on issues concerning religion. The trouble with most drivers is that they seem to have unsolicited “expert” opinions on contentious issues.

But the most depressing dialogue now must be that with Singaporean friends and relatives about our ringgit and its continuing slide. Perhaps I’m sensitive, but I can feel their insinuations about our ringgit being worthless next to their dollar.

The point is this – Malaysia has an image problem.

The ignorant and ridiculous remarks by some of our politicians, particularly on race and religion, haven’t covered us in glory, that’s for sure.

At a few Invest KL meetings I’ve attended, foreign fund managers and institutions make similar queries, reflecting their uncertainties and doubt.

It hasn’t helped that our economic standing has taken a severe beating. According to Morningstar.com, which carried out a study on emerging markets in the last 20 years, Malaysia has slipped down the pecking order badly.

In 1988, under the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, Malaysia was the country with the highest weighting in the index at 33.8%, but it has plunged down to 2.5% as of last year. In comparison, China’s weighting in the MSCI EM Index has shot up to 29.9%, and this is significantly higher than the next largest countries included in the benchmark: South Korea (15.5%), Taiwan (11.8%) and India (8.1%).

We have lost plenty of time and opportunities. The general election is long over and by right, politics should have taken a back seat, except that it hasn’t.

Who cares what people – politicians included – do behind closed doors, so long as they perform well, since we are all measured by our competence at work, and not in bed.

There is an urgent need for Malaysians to come forward to create a new narrative for the country, and with the National Day next month, the timing is perfect for a campaign to propel Malaysia’s public opinion.

As lawyer and writer Syahredzan Johan aptly said, the clock is ticking for a “new, inclusive national agenda” to be accepted by the people, but it’s still within time to make that happen.

“The opportunity was ripe for far-reaching reforms when the people voted for the first change of government in the nation’s history in the 14th general election last year. We should have done it soon after the elections, when the mood for change was still strong,” he said.

But we missed the boat. We didn’t look for reconciliation. Yes, the looters and thieves needed to be reined in and made to pay for their crimes, but the ramifications also appeared to have extended into a witch-hunt, with emotional sparks of vindictiveness and baggage of settling old political scores.

It also didn’t help that we were portrayed as a nation on the brink of a financial melt-down, which invariably spooked many investors.

But that stage has passed. The National Day setting will be a timely occasion to bring Malaysians together. We have seen enough unproductive politicking. What we need more of is reproductive nation building.

Regardless of our political and religious differences, we are all bound by being Malaysian. We are all stakeholders in this great and wonderful country of ours.

We need to take this opportunity to present a new vision and call on all the people to work on the common agenda together. We need to issue a clarion call for Malaysians to come together to build a new future for the country.

The pact must involve all Malaysians, with a sense of inclusiveness, so they feel they have a place and future in Malaysia. As it stands though, pessimism permeates the air.

The unsettling mood, made worse by a poor market, has been compounded by increasingly divisive sentiments concerning racial and religious rights among the country’s political leaders, which cyclically, has flared up again in recent months.

We can’t have politicians running around drumming up racial and religious rhetoric in the name of Malay unity and creating myths of non-Malays – meaning the Chinese – usurping Malay political power.

Unfortunately, many people believe this tale. However, the truth is, those entrusted to protect the Malays and Islam are the ones who looted from our institutions in the first place.

The spin doctoring and inflammatory messages, aimed at winning back votes, could cause untold damage to the nation’s very fabric in the long run. It’s not just unhealthy, but toxic as well.

“The fear is that if this tide became a tsunami, even if the new government succeeds in delivering social justice and fulfilling its election manifesto, it would matter little if people voted based on racial and religious considerations,” said Syahredzan.

However, most of our moderate Malaysians can’t let the racists and religious bigots – who use the race and religion cards to justify their every action – take control of the national discourse.

Malaysia needs to set its global perception right so that when we travel overseas, or meet investors, we can all hold our heads up high and say that we are on the right track – that we are putting the wrongs right, and that this is our way forward. We need to nudge the stick shift into fifth gear, hit the gas and scream down the road of progress.Otherwise, I’m going to have to be friendly again, and grin and bear it when foreign service industry people talk to me about the undesirable things concerning Malaysia.