PANDORA'S BOX
Recently many condemned
our students for demonstrating at the Turun rally. Or was it the Naik rally?
Anyway, these youths were lambasted for wasting their time, their energy and
yes, their precious money on giving stupid support for a stupid cause.
I beg to differ.
Our country is
undergoing a transformation process (cliche but I can't find a better phrase).
We, as a nation, is morphing before our very eyes into something quite
different, maybe in ten to fifteen years time, and I am not talking about our economy
either. I am talking about how our collective psyche, our nation's social
psychography, is changing to a more matured one that we had, even as late as
five years ago.
This is one of the
fruits of our economic progress. What is happening now is due to the expansion
of an educated middle-class (relatively educated middle-class), of better
incomes and due to mass access to modern communication technology. Taken from
this perspective, we should celebrate what is happening now. Yes, it is
disconcerting but so is anyone's awkward teenage years, before one becomes a
fully functioning adult.
I hear some clamouring
for all Muslims to unite. Some are calling for all Chinese to unite. Some are
calling for all under-incomers to unite. My respond is - that's not gonna
happen, even for the biggest party in the country - UMNO. It is futile to think
UMNO will be the great monolithic juggernaut it once was - made up of members
that seemed to be made from one cookie mould.
We have to get used to
the idea of youthful idealism. Obama's won was made partly possible because of
the support that he got from college students. Yes, we can! What bright-eyed
youth would not respond to that?
Look at our student
population now. Look at the diversity of youth on FB. Let them shout themselves
hoarse. I'd say its better for them to think about economic and political
issues, no matter how flawed in our minds their thoughts maybe, than, say,
shooting themselves with drugs and chemicals.
We have to get used to
the idea that not all Malays are the same. UMNO will need to be made up of
different types of Malays - not necessarily a white-shirted, red-logoed, short
haired, paunchy Malay guy - but of all types - the nerdy, the intellectual, the
executives, the artistic and yes, why not?, the flamboyant. UMNO has to be more
inclusive in its casting of its memberships. It must be able to articulate its
vision of Malaysia that would have a broad enough appeal to at least a broad
swath of Malays.
The youth has different
ideas than us. The Malay youth will one day grow up and they will be a part of
the ruling powers that be. From their experience, their perspective, if they so
decide to, say, remove the Bumiputra Special Status, what can we say? We'll be
dead. We cannot do much but for now, we must let them mature, with maturity
comes wisdom, and maturity can only come by them going through the highs, the
lows and the sharp turns of life. Let them shout themselves hoarse. It is a
good thing.
-Saiful Baharom-
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