Tonight’s lighting up of Kangkar Pulai for the Chinese New Year highlights the vitalities of Malaysia, and we must preserve and promote Malaysia’s diversity and colours as a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation as the alternative is a failed state which will not benefit anyone in Malaysia.

Malaysia has recently become a very polarised nation because the extremists in our society have been allowed to exploit race and religion to poison the Malaysian national life, so much so that what had been accepted as part of Malaysian life has been distorted and painted as a grave threat to different communities and religious faiths.

In fact, we have reached a stage where there are Malaysians who pride themselves as racists, something which is completely unacceptable in the past five decades.

We seem to be retrogressing in nation-building. Why are we going backwards?

There are several reasons, but one important reason is that for the past decade, Malaysians seem to have forgotten the basic national documents which formed the basis of Malaysian nation-building, be it the Federal Constitution or the Rukunegara.
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When I visited Salem, India in August last year, I said that Malaysia seemed to be trapped in an extraordinary situation which, if not addressed, will only lead to greater division and disunity, stagnation and failure to leverage on the best values and qualities of the Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western civilisations which meet in confluence in Malaysia to build a great Malaysian nation.

This extraordinary situation was one where every community was made to believe that its ethnicity, rights, culture and future were facing an existential threat – where the Malays felt threatened, the Chinese felt threatened, the Indians felt threatened, the Kadazans felt threatened and the Ibans felt threatened.

Not only the various races felt threatened, Islam felt threatened and the non-Islamic religions felt threatened.

But who was creating all these threats to all ethnic groups in the country? Read the rest of this entry »

I am reminded of Charles Dickens’ famous quote in his book A Tale of Two Cities:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Many Malaysians feel the “winter of despair” but we must persevere to work for the “spring of hope” – to renew resolve, hope and confidence to build a New Malaysia in the new year despite setbacks and vicissitudes.

It is a sign of the failure of the “spring of hope” in Malaysia that 19 months of Pakatan Harapan government – the first time that Malaysia gave the world hope that a peaceful and democratic transition of power can bring about reform and change at a time when democracy was in retreat in the world for over a decade, – seems to have been dissolved in such an ignominous fashion in very discordant and divisive dispute over the Jawi issue.

Since the historic decision of May 9 last year in the last general election, lies, fake news and hate speech by irresponsible and extremist elements resorting to the politics of race and religion aided by the Internet and the social media have conspired to create a false situation where every ethnic group and religion feels that it is facing an existential threat.

As a result, the Vision 2020 of a fully developed Malaysia which is a “united nation, with a confident Malaysian society, infused by strong moral and ethical values, living in a society that is democratic, liberal and tolerant, caring, economically just and equitable, progressive and prosperous, and in full possession of an economy that is competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient” is not within reach on the horizon. Read the rest of this entry »

I am like a fish out of water, launching this new book in Tamil by my friend and comrade of over fifty years, K. Siladass, which is a collection of his short stories in Tamil.

I do not understand Tamil, but before the function, I was privileged to be given a copy of Thirukkural with translation in Malay and English by Dr. Singaravelu Sachithananthan, former head and professor of Indian Studies, University of Malaya – which must the first book of its kind in the world.

This highlights the powerful symbolism of this occasion, that Malaysia is a confluence of four great civilisations in the world – Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western – and Malaysia must strive to become an example to the world of the success of the Alliance of Civilisations instead of being a failure because of the Clash of Civilisations.

I browsed through the Thirukkural couplets, which is some 2,300 years old, dealing with everyday virtues, ethics and morality, which had influenced scholars across the ethical, social, political, economic, religious, philosophical and spiritual spheres like Tolstoy, Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer. Read the rest of this entry »