This is the sixth of my kopitiam ceramahs in five Johor State Assembly constituencies in the past three days to take the political pulse in the country by sharing with the people the latest political events in the country and to learn about their concerns about what is happening in the country.

Undoubtedly, the top issues of the day jostling for pole position include the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal; the 6% GST tax; the revolt of Dr. Mahathir calling for Najib’s resignation as PM; the two scandals in the administration of justice – the unanswered question as to who was the mastermind of the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu and the second jailing of Anwar Ibrahim; the Permatang Pauh by-election; the worst racial and religious polarization in the country as highlighted by the protest of a group of Malay residents at a sight of a cross in a Christian church in Taman Medan, Selangor and the future of Pakatan Rakyat.

The protest by a group of Malay residents at the sight of a cross on the ground that it was a threat to Malays and Islam is testimony of the failure of over half a century of Malaysian nation-building.

Such a reaction and protest would be quite unheard-of and even unthinkable in the first five decades of our nation-hood from Merdeka in 1957, but it seems to become quite commonplace and the norm in the country in the past five years, which is most ironical as it coincides with the period when the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is going the world as a globe-trotting salesman of his “Global Movement of Moderates”! Read the rest of this entry »