What happened yesterday in Perak just was one very nasty wake up call. There is no vision for 1Malaysia. That 1BlackMalaysia happened instead, leaves the blood boiling instead. That the city that I grew up in turned into a police state, leaves me dumbstruck. How can this be happening in our country after all?
But then again, it's happening all over the country. Suddenly, the police have a longer reach. But instead of using it to protect the citizens, they've opted for gestapo like methods instead. Instead of cracking down on robberies and such, I see them harassing foreign workers instead. Or pulling over citizens with threats of fines and jail terms just because they have a dvd/cd that they can't identify? The police state is suddenly becoming a very near reality.
And so, I'm asked once again by people if I'm gonna leave the country. Like so many others. This country is going downhill they tell me. I can't agree with them more. From the gestapo-like police, to the racist education system, to the alarming flipflop stands on religion, it's all going wrong. It's a government that doesn't listen to its people and instead adopts a father-knows-best regime.
But i tell them no. I'm not gonna leave.
I'm not running.
This is supposed to be OUR country. Where US Malaysians are supposed to live happily ever after. Maybe I'm an idealist when I choose instead to believe that one day, we can all fill in Malaysian under race. Or that my children will not have religion forced upon them and instead choose to adopt my beliefs.
So instead, I choose to stay.
And FIGHT.
Because after everything, May 7th Perak is a very rude awakening. And as much as I think that things will be resolved peacefully, that's just a fairytale ending.
Because at the rate things are going, blood will flow. And when we cannot take all the pushing anymore, we will push back.
And it will get ugly.
This is not over, in fact, it's just the beginning of the end.
Time to bring out that deckchair and watch the world burn.