Who cares about Malaysia?
J-on
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Sunday, February 28, 2010
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By Nigel Aw
Recently a friend told me that she was dissapointed with Malaysia and wanted to emigrate when such a chance arises. What she witnessed in her dealings with the buereaucracy and society during her industrial training only added to that despair.
Such despair is shared by many of us today as we are dissapointed over and over again by our country to the extend of numbness.
Silly women-fearing or racially-charged comments no longer generate outrage, instead we merely shrug it off: “Not again!”. If we were to take it to heart, we would probably have bled to death.
Despite of all the madness, deep down we know that we love our country.
For example, we may criticise our national football team for their appaling performance, and sometimes we may even inadvertently support the opposing team.
But we criticise - just as parents do, their children - because we want the national team to improve but also we fear to support it because we don’t want to be dissappointed again.
Some may find this unpatriotic but if we didn’t care about Malaysia, then we would not even bother criticising our national team nor would we even feel the slightest dissapointment.
Amid the seeming hopelessness, we ought to know that there is something that we can do, albeit in small ways.
We can talk to our Gucci and Armani-obssesed friends about important policy matters affecting their lives.
We can explain to our DotA-crazy friends about the happenings in the country.
We can spare five minutes of our time to register as a voter at the post office.
We can join chairtable organisations to help the underprivilleged.
And the list goes on. The fact is that there are many little things that we can do, and no matter how insignificant they may seem, it all adds up.
I once came across a saying that goes: “If you love your country, first it will break your heart, then it will break your spirit.”
As pessimistic as it may sounds, let our hearts be broken, but never our spirit in making a small difference. We don’t have a right to complain until we’ve at least done our part.
