Tuesday, November 29, 2005

what is the point?

so much going on in Malaysia lately.

bribery, naked girl in a lockup, more corruption.

i think i have become one of those people who reads those articles and shakes my head and says 'how terrible' but am never moved enough to do something or get fully enraged about it.

i simply think 'well, thats the way malaysia works. we will never change the system'. and then i think about how terrible a thought like that is and feel ashamed even though some part of me knows its the truth. sadly, most of everyone in our country is like that.

they are happy earning their salary every month, making just enough to pay the bills and buy necessities with a little leftover for indulgence. students are blissfully oblivious to the fact that they are prevented by law to participate in any political discussions but go around day to day, the girls stressing about how well their miniskirts go with their heels and the boys stressing about how many girls they gonna get with over the weekend.

my one year stint at Monash University in Malaysia made that much clear, that majority of the students here are so into the superficial and the materialistic that they can be complacent about the politics that involves them. they are discouraged from taking part, having an opinion and end up being pushovers for the rest of their life.

Malaysia, a democracy? maybe in another thousand years.

when i first went into political science my dad looked at me and asked me about future job prospects and i looked at him and shrugged. politics in malaysia, i told him, was not somewhere i wanted to be involved in.

i am Chinese, i am female therefore i will not be fairly treated. that sadly, is all there is to it.

there are youth in Malaysia capable of battling the system but they have responsibilities that stop them from having a full and active part in this.

malaysia is suffering from tendencies of racism, sexism and corruption. it cannot be fixed by us grass roots people, it must stop from the top. from the people that stipulate that bumis have everything fed to them on a silver spoon, the people who ignore the lack of women MPs in the senate and the people that accept the bribes.

for me, it comes down to a sense of helplessness and desperation. i read the newspapers day after day and feel nothing but sadness about the state of our system. i feel quite sure now that if i were to eventually end up in politics, i will not end up here. i wont know where to start, there will be so much to fight against.

i give up caring.

4 Comments:

Blogger mooiness said...

Yup I feel that way too when I read the news. But I'm slightly more optimistic - Msia has a progressive PM (more than the ones before anyway), MPs like Lim Kit Siang and Teresa Kok that maintain the "rage against the machine", and bloggers like Jeff Ooi who constantly highly the issues to the greater public.

I especially feel empowered by blogging because let's face it - the traditional media are hopelessly compromised. Plus the fact that more and more bumis are becoming more enlightened than before. That they realise that they can't rely on being spoon fed forever.

Also, technology really does break down the barriers between the social classes and the races.

So perhaps it may take a generation or two but it shouldn't take a thousand years like you've said. ;)

8:09 PM  
Blogger Chong Chung Fui said...

how true... my gf juz met a flasher dat day... =P

2:48 PM  
Blogger ally said...

mooi: i still think its rather hopeless. its like 3 people fighting against a government that seems hell bent on keeing things the way they are (except for Badawi, i quite like the way he's doing things). we'll see how it goes, hopefully by the time i get out to work things will be more progressive..

chungers: ewww there used to be one outside MC remember?? this indian guy walking around in a loin cloth!

7:30 PM  
Blogger Chong Chung Fui said...

yah!!! i remember! but isnt he supposedly da keeper of da chruchyard where we used 2 play football? =P

1:04 PM  

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