Malaysiaku Gemilang?

I hereby dub thee....

I finally got my MCA membership card, 1-year after signing up. Yes, I know that in this time and age, waiting a year for anything borders on the ludicrous but hey, it's a political party not a private enterprise.

I should consider myself lucky. There was some poor chap who still hasn't received his card, 5 years after signing up.... the poor sod.

The press were there to cover the ceremony, and apparently my face appeared in the China Press newspaper. I wouldn't know though since I don't read the China Press due to the fact that the only part of the paper I can read is the top right-hand corner where the date is displayed. Ah yes, I know my Mandarin numerical characters like the back of my hand *smug*.


Haemorrhaging Patriotism

Lately, I haven't been as active in MCA as I would have liked. The all-consuming pressures of work can sometimes leave precious little time to engage in any other activities. However, there were some recent events highlighted in our news which caused me to take a step back and focus on why I joined MCA in the first place.

I still remember it so clearly. Call it naive patriotism if you may, but I first joined MCA simply because I wanted to make a difference, to stand up against the encroaching racial and religious discrimination in Malaysia, to speak out against what I perceive to be gross injustices perpetuated by the government against the non-Bumi community.

There were so many things I wanted to do....so many things that I thought could be done...

Then the battering began.

Day in day out, it never ceases.

Our deputy PM declares that Malaysia is not a secular state but an Islamic nation, despite it being stated so clearly in our country's constitution that Malaysia has, and always will be a secular nation....

The UMNO vilify Chinese schools as being harbingers of racial disunity, while at the same time clamoring for more local universities and colleges to be designated for 'Bumis only'....

The government talks about religious tolerance in the press, but not a single a mention was given to the other religions while the word 'Islam' and 'Muslim' was repeated over 20 times....

I could go on and on.

Honestly, in such situations, it is so easy to just detach yourself from it all. To just not give a damn, to just carry on with your daily routines and let other people worry about it .... because after all, it has always been this way and it always will isn't it?

For awhile, the thought of just not caring did cross my mind. But then I was reminded of this quote I read in an article, and the quote goes like this...

"The greatest tragedy of the 21st century is not tyranny, or racism, or greed...but indifference"

The moment we become indifferent to the pleas of our fellow men, to their suffering, to the injustice that permeates our society.... that is when we've lost touch of what it is to be human.

No way am I gonna let that happen to me. It's time to buck up.