`


THERE IS NO GOD EXCEPT ALLAH
read:
MALAYSIA Tanah Tumpah Darahku

LOVE MALAYSIA!!!


 


Monday, August 10, 2015

We only get the Government we deserve

We lament what is happening to our nation, but what about us? When will we change?
COMMENT
malaysia,tukar
A few days ago, I had an enormous craving for a McDonald’s breakfast set, so I decided to visit the one closest to home – the one in SS2.
Having made my purchase, I realised that the restaurant was packed to capacity. With the food tray and morning paper in hand, I found my way to the second floor only to find it crowded as well. My eyes searched the room for an available table and then I spotted a child sitting alone at a table, right outside the glass door.
“Is anyone sitting here?” I asked a man occupying the table next to the child.
“No. Sit-lah,” he answered as he picked up the two-ish year old kid who apparently was his.
“Thank you.”
As I munched on my McMuffin and gulped down some coffee, a woman with a food tray filled with breakfast delights arrived at the table where the man and his two year old were seated. She started nagging. I tried to ignore them. I kept my nose in my morning newspaper and tried to mind my own business. It was just too much noise too early in the morning,
A few minutes later, I noticed the man stealing glances at the front page of my newspaper. His eyes looked like they were skimming the article.
“Would you like to read it?” I asked as I took out the mid-section of the newspaper.
“Nothing to read lah. Only recycled news about 1MDB, Najib, Muhyiddin and Mahathir. Wasting time only,” he pouted.
I smiled.
“Every politician is the same. Why you think they want to be a politician in the first place? Easy way to make money-lah,” he continued.
“Orang masuk politik senang dapat donation mah. Tak payah susah-susah belajar tinggi-tinggi,” echoed the lady sitting next to him as she placed the toddler on the floor, shoeless.
“…but now there are politicians who are trying to make things right…” I replied as my eyes followed the kid roaming around the tables, at times falling on all fours.
“Don’t trust what you read. It’s all a wayang, just to shut us up. Let me tell you – these people are a bunch of lallangs. Yesterday they blindly supported their leader. Today they support us. Tomorrow they might change again. Semua tak boleh pakai.”
Disturbed by the fact that a young kid was exploring the filthy floor of a fast food restaurant, I politely voiced my worry, “I think your kid is picking up dirt from the floor…”
“Everyone has responsibilities. If those people leading us can be responsible, we will have better lives. But all these people are only good in doing the Tai-Chi. They keep giving excuses and keep blaming others,” he continued, totally disregarding my worry.
A moment later, the woman grabbed the kid from the floor and started nagging once again. She placed the boy on the table, poured some water on a few tissues above the food tray and started wiping the kid’s hands and feet –they were black!
My jaw almost dropped when I saw her dumping the used tissue onto the food tray once those tiny hands and feet were pinkish again.
“I tell you ah, if we don’t save Malaysia now, our children no future already…”
I ignored his next set of speeches. I was hooked on another scene. The woman was changing the toddler’s dirty diaper right there on a public restaurant table. Then she proceeded to leave the soiled diaper on the food tray, just next to the blackish tissue she had disposed of earlier.
I was flabbergasted and dumbstruck as the couple waved goodbye and walked away with the child ─ fast food restaurants do not wash their food trays!
After all that talk about irresponsible leaders, look at this irresponsible citizen – I thought.
It is true that we are facing many challenges today. 1MDB is indeed an ugly scandal. The ringgit falling is indeed terrible. The death of freedom of the press is indeed horrible. The cabinet reshuffle is indeed outrageous. Clearly something needs to be done quickly before it gets even uglier.
But while we lament the destruction of our beloved nation, we continue to cut lanes, double park, litter, waste water, waste electricity, squat on public sitting toilets with shoes on, cut queues, park at OKU bays, spit in the middle of the road, pick our noses and wipe it under the restaurant chair, leave our domestic trash in the elevator, light up a ciggy in public places, dump diapers on food trays and continuously display our ugly attitude for everyone to see.
When are WE going to change?
Yes, we deserve a responsible government. But we also deserve a responsible nation – a nation of responsible fathers, mothers, siblings, children, relatives, friends, neighbours and communities. How can we bring back order into our system when we are not willing to change ourselves?
A nation deserves a government that is only as good as its people. The question to ask ourselves is…
“What kind of a government do we deserve?”
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
-Leo Tolstoy

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.