Dirt Has Inertia

I’ve never felt more hopeful for Malaysia than today. Now. At this very moment.
It helps that I live in Penang, the state that is a little bit of rebellious rock ‘n roll.
It helps that we have a Chief Minister who doesn’t mince his words nor goes around frying up char kueh teow to please the crowd.
He may make mistakes here and there, but you know what, he is also undoing the mistakes of the past 30 or so years.
Cleaning up takes time. Dirt has inertia.
At least he’s got balls. Can’t stand a man who has no guts.
You know, the courage to stand up for what’s worth standing up for. Remember this man was jailed for his beliefs and fighting the truth.
Yes, since 2008, I’ve felt even more hopeful. The coalition may be a bit unsteady on its feet at some point but the thing I see is, it has managed to transcend the boundaries of race and religion.
Before, you voted for your race representative.
Now, people will vote for a solid belief, hope for the future. I’ve heard friends saying, “I don’t care if he’s Indian, Malay or Chinese. I am voting for change.”
It’s not a fad, nor a radical new thing which will fade with time. It seems to me that Gen X and Gen Y are happier unshackled by the ghosts of 1969. We are a lot more fearless because we don’t know that bogeyman. It’s not real to us and it doesn’t mean a thing.
It doesn’t take us away from our hopes.
This brings me to my vision of what one day we will be.
We will be true Malaysians.
Call me an idealist but I’d rather be a warrior idealist any day and fight a good fight than be a chicken and pretend things are all going well when they aren’t. I’ve written about friends who emigrate and I wonder if they’ve lost all hope and prefer going away.
Whatever it is, I am eternally optimistic that things will be better once we are all Malaysians – not just Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban, Kadazan etc.
Yes, dirt has inertia but there are ways to make things clean again.

Up to the Moon

Even before the election fever started, we had been looking forward to listening to the campaign ceramah(s). In 2004, we had great fun trailing the DAP as they organised ceramah here and there. Since we were mostly around this Bukit Gambir area, we of course braved the massive crowds and pushed our way through to hear Karpal Singh when he was fighting for the Bukit Gelugur seat. (This was before he met with the accident so this was before he became wheelchair-bound. Poor guy!)
Last Wednesday night, we were again on our rounds to Air Itam to look for the DAP ceramah. Sadly, DAP could not get a permit and didn’t manage to hold a ceramah at the appointed place!
This year too we wanted to go to a DAP ceramah, if only to hear blogger Jeff Ooi speak! I know many bloggers in Penang are working hard for him either helping him on polling day or at least helping him spread the news and vote for Jeff Ooi/ vote for Jelutong, THE place where the Tiger of Jelutung (Karpal Singh) used to be.
DAP Penang ceramah
But finally hear Jeff Ooi we did. I must say he did floor me with his arguments which were rather well-thought out with extremely hard hitting facts. Although he spoke with an American drawl, he spoke well too in Hokkien, Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia.

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