Will we strengthen or weaken the bridge to our future?

Far too much turbulence flows unabated without our leaders doing anything positive to calm the waters.

COMMENT

By J D Lovrenciear

Going by media reports and the flurry of social media exchanges, it is clear there is far too much turbulence under the “bridge”.

The question is for how long can this nation withstand such politically laced turbulence?

In her latest commentary in Free Malaysia Today, Mariam Mokhtar aptly stated that Jawi should “stop molesting Muslim girls” – a direct reference to the K-Pop incident that hogged our headlines this past week. Expressing her concerns, shared alike by netizens and civil society leaders, Mariam also illustrated several other incidents that have caused unnecessary turbulence in our social sphere.

The case of the Miss Malaysia World 2013 beauty pageant; the case of dog lover Maznah Mohd Yusof; the case of beer-drinking Kartika Dewi Sukarno.

Also the fact that the original twenty-five eminent former senior civil servants and Muslims, had to express their grave and valid concerns over Malaysia’s future, given the mounting racial-religious-political turbulence we are experiencing.

In a global climate where the war on terror is taking on frightening proportions, must Malaysia add to the threats on humanity?

Would it not be better for a growing nation and a promising ‘Asian Tiger’ to be finding peaceful ways to grow out of race-based political frameworks in order to embrace a new world order that is already taking shape outside our shores rather than wage a battle among ourselves?

We need a leader who can act in a timely manner and not wait for civil society to take to the streets and demand for action or worse, scramble to react only after a repeat of the induced race riots of 1969.

We need to converge despite our political differences if we truly profess to put our nation before our political agendas. Questionable political priorities, race supremacy and religious paranoia only rob a nation of its patriotism.

Today Malaysia is extremely vulnerable after having allowed issues of race and religion to divide us. Surviving politically by using this discord in society as political weapons will do nothing to strengthen the bridge to Malaysia’s future.

We need the courage to come together despite our differences and say, “The buck stops here and it better be now, not someday in the future”.

Otherwise, we better be prepared for the worse. That is the honest, though painful, truth.

J D Lovrenciear is an FMT reader