To quote an old friend, in simple language, if you see something which needs to be done, something which affects you, your family, and even your country, you are not going to think, ah, what will the neighbours or your friends think. You are just going to do it. And when you see your child drowning in the water, you do not tell him, hold on, I will telephone the bomba, they are the right people; nor are you going to tell him, this is divinely ordained, qadak and qadar, and I do not want to interfere in your destiny, I respect your freedom to drown! No, you are just going to dive right in.
(Likewise, if si Luncai, whatever his faults, were to terjun dengan labu labunya in the water, I for one cannot say, "Biarkan, biarkan!". Under the International Laws of the Sea, I am obliged and duty bound to rescue him!)
OK, so where is the fire?
More than 2000 years ago, Plato the Greek said, "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." Hmmm. Perhaps he was being a little harsh and elitist here, but there is much to be said about this quote. Of late we are seeing the country going to the dogs with greedy politicians, corrupt police and judiciary, racial disintegration, religious bigotry and worse, an apathetic and a very gullible citizenry. Our founding fathers must surely be turning in their graves right now.
So all hands on deck for we cannot remain on the sidelines forever, on the outside looking in, nor can we just engage in ad hoc fire fighting. The proverbial ball, as they say, is in our court. The time and the place, my friends, is here and now ...
Sunday, August 19, 2007
9 comments:
Dear Reader,
This blog promotes freedom of speech and I invite fair comment. This is not a chat room and I would appreciate if you could identify yourself. However, if you prefer to remain anonymous please note that remarks that are deemed grossly inappropriate, maliciously defamatory, extremely vulgar or ad hominem attacks (against my person) will be deleted.
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The Ancient Mariner
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Greetings Captain Yusof,
ReplyDeleteHave been following your blog with great interest, it is well written, informative, enlightening, and thoughtful.
I echo your feelings; I have been living and working (in the maritime sector) in Malaysia for over 30 years, and am saddened by the rot which is now spreading like a cancer in Malaysia.
The people must act, the cancer of corruption must be completely excised before it is too late, if not the shit will hit the fan and Malaysia will be doomed!
We should all read, mark learn and inwardly digest the words of Martin Niemöller, this is his poem:
Original in German
Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.
Translation in English
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
There is much to be done, no more time now for malaise, complaisance, apathy, and sheepish ‘follow my leader’ mentality, we must rock the boat, even capsize it is needs be.
Malaysia should be at par, if not better than our southern neighbour, but as it is after 50 years of independence we are a corrupted, dirty, unmaintained third world country.
How shameful this is.
Hope the right thinking people of Malaysia will united and the nation can be rescued from the greedy corrupted self-centred politicians, corrupt and inept police and judiciary, corrupt and uncivil civil servants institutionalised racial discrimination, religious bigotry and much much more besides.
We must not remain silent.
The time for concerted action is now.
Capt. Karim:
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind words. I do believe we owe it to our children and our children's children to try and make things as ship-shape as possible in our own small ways.
Very nice to hear from you.
Captain
ReplyDeleteto engage in changes;is it going to be within or outside. agreed with you, gotta engage else there is nothing much more left for our children.
anon:
ReplyDeleteIn a democracy, the only way for changes to happen is still thru the ballot box. So engage we must by helping to spread the word and zeroing in the rakyat's conscience.
Dera Ancient Mariner,
ReplyDeleteThe article on NATIONAL CORRUPTION DAY is worth reading ,please refer to this
http://tokasid.blogspot.com/
Captain
ReplyDeleteGovernment is bailing out PKA and looks like the guilty ones are getting away with squandering RM 4.6 billion and those UMNO vultures who milked taxpayers' money (yours and mine) are laughing all the way to the bank, many times over?
You think something can be done, besides we all whining in cyberspace... or is all this a waste of our bandwith talking about this?
There is a sense of helplessness with this UMNO govt who allowed their own members to make a mockery of the Govt bureaucracy for their own selfish ends. You know, many bureaucrats in the Ministry shiver in the pants when they are told this and that are for UMNO-linked companies?
anon:
ReplyDeletesimon:
This may sound very cliché, but if its finger pointing time then we have to remember that every time we point a finger, we have three fingers pointing back at us....
All hands on deck.
ReplyDeleteSound general quarters.
Aye, aye, Capt. Time to rumble.
*Gee, I wonder if BigDog will lead the calvary charge yet again on his trusty steed. Hark, I hear Zorro unsheathing his Spanish blade and Rocky just took out his championship darts. Uhhh...captain, will my pea-shooter be suffice?*
shar101:
ReplyDeleteAh, there you go.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...