My Patriotism

From my private journal:

13 March 2008

Never believed the day would come when I would be less than patriotic or harbour thoughts of leaving Malaysia and making my home outside Malaysia.

The recent election (the 12th on 8/3/08) found me voting against the ruling party - something that caused twinges of alarm and mini klaxons on my "moral compass". I had steadfastly resisted the call to vote against, countering and arguing vociferously that if we all did that, then, the opposition might win and all the success and development achieved thus far might be reversed 5, 10 or 15 years. Better the known evil than the unknown who is also inexperienced. An inexperienced government with the best intentions could cause even more evil - well, that is my belief.

And then a chance encounter on the day before election. I took a bus back from Melaka and somehow or other, Larry couldn't fetch me from the Shah Alam bus station. So I jumped into a cab and the taxi driver - a Malay Pak Haji - was on a crusade! He was loquacious, he was persuasive, he assured me he was ultra patriotic, he had voted for BN all his life and by virtue of his advanced age, three times more than I had and in the end he convinced me that if I truly love my country I must vote against this time so as to "wake up" the ruling party. He promised me we could go back to voting for BN at the next election. To my argument of "what if we plunge our country into chaos?", he said, "We will have to trust in God - don't we worship the same God?"

Against huge misgivings, I followed his advice and the subsequent results - the ruling party lost control for the first time 4 power states - a shock, a wake-up call.

I was worried, I was concerned amidst the jubilation and celebrations of people around me.

But the justifications, the blames and the excuses of the affected politicians in the following days, to date, have so disenchanted me I'm toying with the idea of migrating -although not to a western country.

NB:I was only toying with the idea. I'm still Anak Malaysia. I don't see any value in being anything but Malaysian. HOT, 28 October 2011