Phew, I cleared out so much of my junk since I was a young boy. As you can see I am pretty much a nostalgic guy, huhu. Or actually I think it might be because as a boy, I never have the luxury of buying new toys, most of my toys are either given by relatives or from friends. I really treasure them as each piece has its own memory attached. But, time has come for me to part with them.
That takes care of all my junk and I have space for new things and the store room and my room looks much neater and cleaner now. While I was clearing out, the dust just made me 'ha-chew!' all the time, bah, allergic to dust and it is really itchy when I got it on my skin! Bear with it boy, I told myself and finally I cleared everything out!
Since I am home, a lot of thoughts have gone through my little mind, a young and ambitious mind. A friend once asked that is it possible for Sarawak to be independent from the Federation of Malaysia, and that time I didn't reply but now I am sure that we cannot be independent from the country yet. We do not have capable leaders and the people are not ready to do so. Rather, I think we should have a look at the problems that we East Malaysian faces from the view of the whole country rather than zooming into our little East Malaysian states (the word 'little' is very very very far from describing its actual size, West Malaysian states combined = 131 598 sq.km, East Malaysian states = 200 565 sq.km).
After talking to different people, I realise our problem. Our problem is WE DON'T CARE ENOUGH!
Why do I say that? Well, the comments that I make might sort of land me in hot soup but I think I might get by, and if it really does, then be it. How many of you have made the effort to register and vote for elections? That little box of 'X' is your power to exercise!
We live in a democratic nation. Let me tell you what that means, WE ELECT LEADERS TO MANAGE OUR RESOURCES AS GOVERMENT AND MAKE OUR LIVES BETTER. The government is not some far-away machinery churning away. It affects our everyday life. It affects the air you breathe, the water you drink, the food you eat. It affects the car you drive, the petrol you pump, the road you travel on. It affects the clothes you wear, the money you earn, the life you can afford. We can't just pay tax and expect it to be gone. TAX IS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE BETTER, NOT WORSE! Why do I say that? Well, tax is supposedly used to pay our civil servants (which we have tonnes and because of overlapping, there is minimal efficiency) to govern our resources and in return the tax can be used to improve our infrastructure, social and education systems, and our post-retirement life.
What is happening now? You try to earn as much money as you can, on top of paying for tax tax tax, you try to sell things as expensive as possible to earn a living, and you try to do as much overtime as possible to cover up your expenses. But you never stop and look at where all your money goes. The BN government has 'managed' our country 'nicely' such that we now have a RM455.7 billion deficit. Nah, that doesn't mean anything to you, let me put that into context; that means each one of you is owing RM16 000 for the country. Yes, YOU! Not only you, your 1 year-old cousin and 79 year-old uncle as well. Do you realise what is happening yet?
No? Our govenment is actually spending more than they can acquire. Well, spend in what? I don't know, because we have OSA and ISA, so a lot of stuff we can't know. What? You don't know what is OSA? It is secret (pun intended). If I accidentally step into the forbidden zone, I will be gone under ISA, and if I am in a peaceful assembly, I will be fined or jailed under the new Peaceful Assembly Bill. One thing for sure, the tax and earnings of our federal government has disappeared. Where? Ask the top 50 richest in Malaysia - the relatives of our BN government.
The time has come to change, my friends. If BN is good, why bother changing? But you can see for yourself all the financial hiccups and scandals committed by our BN leaders. Since DAP has managed to change the deficits of Penang into profits in one year, why not we give a chance to the People's Coalition to govern?
You don't want to care because you think you can make a difference. False. You have the vote. It is democracy and not dictatorship, it is people's power and not BN's power. If you don't care, not only your children will suffer to pay off the debts of our BN government, your life now will be affected as they continue to have disappearing money. (Perhaps wormholes appear to siphon out our money?)
As a Christian, I respect my leaders for what they do. I respect the kings and those in power for their job but not their way of dealing with the society. For the love of everyone around me, I think all of you out there need to know what is happening to my beloved country and make a move. I do not wish to see anyone struggle in life because of someone else's selfish governance. Rather, I want to see everyone to have the chance to education, basic amenities like electricity and clean water supply, financial support for poor families, affordable housing and to be able to exercise freedom of speech and freedom of peaceful gathering.You can run away from this country, but how about those who can't do so?
Don't wait till it is too late. Please.
