Who will shout ‘Merdeka’? – Nawawi Mohamad

At a time when the entire nation mourns for the victims of flight MH17 with deep humility and a minute of solemn silence, we should take this opportunity and the upcoming Merdeka Day to look back at our history, the present day, the future of our country and the unborn generation – whether they would also be mourning due to the present polarisation, intolerance and the racial and religious tension that could be the cause of their eventual hardship in a future Malaysia which is divided and poor.

We should remember, and Umno must acknowledge, that Malaysians of all races, creeds and religions sacrificed themselves in the struggle for independence and the fight against the communists.

Umno has unashamedly capitalised on these episodes for its own interests. No event that has affected us as a nation befell the Malays and Umno alone. Everyone in this country suffered! Even in future, we will either celebrate or mourn together, not as individuals, when any unfortunate thing takes place. Disaster is not selective.

May be it is too late for us now but let not the future unborn Malaysians face the situation above. We should make a commitment that whatever bad experience we have had whether due to colonisation, intrusion, disaster, calamity or blunder, that we have experienced right through the British rule, the Japanese occupation, communist insurgency, independence, May 13, two economic recessions, tsunami, the Lahad Datu incursion, MH370 and MH17, should not occur again. At least we should try our best to prevent them from happening. Enough is enough!

After all, we live on borrowed time, resources and funds of our children and grandchildren. Most of our natural resources are either gone or depleted. Our rivers have all been polluted that the government now contemplates tapping underground water for our daily use. If this supply is depleted, where would our future generation source their water from?

In the IMF forecast of our national debt level for the years 2013 to 2017 with an annual increase in debt at RM55.4 billion a year, the projected debt level for 2017 is RM779 billion. There has been no sign of the debt accumulation reducing or leveling out since the East Asian economic crisis of 1997.

Our national debt now hovers around RM550 billion! The total amount borrowed by the government from our EFP is around RM150 billion, with Felda alone borrowing RM70 billion from the EPF and until now no announcement made whether a single sen has been paid back.

Then there are the warnings from Petronas that we need to invest overseas in search of new oil fields because ours will be gone in 20 to 30 years. Petronas, however, lacks funds because the government has been siphoning out the money for bailouts.

The present government has done little to extinguish the racial and religious flames. Najib Razak has not lifted a finger on those who are openly racist or on bigots from various races, religious groups and political parties, including in Umno/BN. Dr Mahathir has also reprimanded Najib for this inaptitude, which shows that Najib lacks vision for Malaysians.

Yesterday's national mourning had been biased towards Umno and the Malays as shown on national television. Only glimpses of the non-Malay family members and ceremonies could be seen, and few non-Malay faces filled the television screen.
The government has also failed to show any of the opposition party leaders who definitely care and grieve over what happened to MH17.

This is not a "one common prayer" as Najib has exalted. This is a self-centred event, taking advantage of the grievance of others.

No wonder, the number of vehicles flying the Jalur Gemilang on the roads and highways could be counted with our fingers. Who would then shout “Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!" with real patriotism come August 31?

* Nawawi Mohamad reads The Malaysian Insider.