Not my country, not my leader
I have watched, with a strange fascination, the 2008 US elections which just saw Senator Barrack Obama elected as the forty fourth president of the United States of America. I question my interest, beyond just the mere facts of this being the one election in the entire world that affects everyone, great and small. On the back of economic woes, two wars in the Middle East, and a mind-blowing national debt, I’m thinking that he might have a tough time enacting the changes he has promised. But no matter what changes he fails to bring, he has already shown me that changes have already been made, and that even before he has stepped up to the president’s mantle, we have to remember that he has already brought about the greatest change of them all.
If my own country, Malaysia, is to learn anything from this, it is solely that nothing is permanent, and that everyone must learn to change, or die trying. Large regimes that fester with distrust and corruption are bound to have an end, and in the very least, change can come about through bloodless means as long as the political system allows for it. And that US presidency elections bring hope, that at least some people in the world can live up to that ideal, that men can be masters of their own fate, and that anyone, truly anyone, even if it’s a C-average student or, god-forbid, a hockey mom from Wasilla, can run for president.
I kinda find myself envying the US presidential elections a lot, mainly because my friends in the States can honestly say that they did (or did not) vote for the actual man who would lead them for the next four years. All in the same time that the US presidential elections were happening, I look over at Malaysia, and somehow, even as a citizen (second-class), I look at my own powerless hands as I watch a man that I’m almost certain that 95% of Malaysians did not even have a chance to approve, rise to the most powerful post in the country without nary of a rigorous scrutiny of the public eye.
What democracy is there in a country where the people cannot even choose their leader?
I am stretched with incredulity that my PM has the audacity to suggest that anyone can be the prime minister of Malaysia, despite the clear lack of a democratic process in his handing over of power to his deputy. While he has the benefit of being unaccountable for his careless words, it is sort of a laugh and backhand slap at the minority groups in Malaysia when there remains a clear disjoint between his words and reality, which underscores how really out of touch he is with the public.
This is a country where our leaders can barely stand up to the swathe of accusations that pile up on the Internet, where the media has sat back, rolled over and died on their responsibility to report the truth, and the taint of corruption is so pervasive that we cannot even fathom this country without it. In America, they had two great men, run for the most important post of the country. In Malaysia… We are hard pressed to find even one who can rise above the pettiness and hubris.
And again, as the US elections have demonstrated, how powerless we are to do anything about it. A leader, not of my choosing, and a country, with tiered citizenship. It seems that we have not come a long way from being ruled by outsiders. I can honestly say that this is not my country and the man in power is not my leader.
While the US celebrates its historic change and upholding of human ideals of freedom and right of self-determinism, the rest of us can only sit back and watch in envy, as we can only hope that our time will come soon.
If my own country, Malaysia, is to learn anything from this, it is solely that nothing is permanent, and that everyone must learn to change, or die trying. Large regimes that fester with distrust and corruption are bound to have an end, and in the very least, change can come about through bloodless means as long as the political system allows for it. And that US presidency elections bring hope, that at least some people in the world can live up to that ideal, that men can be masters of their own fate, and that anyone, truly anyone, even if it’s a C-average student or, god-forbid, a hockey mom from Wasilla, can run for president.
I kinda find myself envying the US presidential elections a lot, mainly because my friends in the States can honestly say that they did (or did not) vote for the actual man who would lead them for the next four years. All in the same time that the US presidential elections were happening, I look over at Malaysia, and somehow, even as a citizen (second-class), I look at my own powerless hands as I watch a man that I’m almost certain that 95% of Malaysians did not even have a chance to approve, rise to the most powerful post in the country without nary of a rigorous scrutiny of the public eye.
What democracy is there in a country where the people cannot even choose their leader?
I am stretched with incredulity that my PM has the audacity to suggest that anyone can be the prime minister of Malaysia, despite the clear lack of a democratic process in his handing over of power to his deputy. While he has the benefit of being unaccountable for his careless words, it is sort of a laugh and backhand slap at the minority groups in Malaysia when there remains a clear disjoint between his words and reality, which underscores how really out of touch he is with the public.
This is a country where our leaders can barely stand up to the swathe of accusations that pile up on the Internet, where the media has sat back, rolled over and died on their responsibility to report the truth, and the taint of corruption is so pervasive that we cannot even fathom this country without it. In America, they had two great men, run for the most important post of the country. In Malaysia… We are hard pressed to find even one who can rise above the pettiness and hubris.
And again, as the US elections have demonstrated, how powerless we are to do anything about it. A leader, not of my choosing, and a country, with tiered citizenship. It seems that we have not come a long way from being ruled by outsiders. I can honestly say that this is not my country and the man in power is not my leader.
While the US celebrates its historic change and upholding of human ideals of freedom and right of self-determinism, the rest of us can only sit back and watch in envy, as we can only hope that our time will come soon.
