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So we have seen another political dawn in Malaysia, with another not-so-new political alliance taking over. Given how vicious local politics is, we can’t say whether this dawn will be the beginning of a day of calm or of turmoil. The stakes are high, and the smart money wouldn’t be on calm.

Regardless of whoever’s in charge in Putrajaya, we remain a nation full of cracks and fissures. The noxious politics of our politicians, in bringing us to this point, also made them very powerful and formidable adversaries who won’t give up easily.

The recent elections saw the Malay- and Muslim- based parties PAS and Bersatu making ground, and benefiting from a surprisingly strong support from the young voters. The idea that the young care more about the future is perhaps too simplistic – many of them fear it instead, as shown by their choices.

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A powerful racial majority but still running scared

PART 2

I don’t wish to write a history book. History books in Malaysia are mostly fictional propaganda rubbish, anyway. But we are where we are, we know what we know, and we now know a lot.

All the reasonable ones among us want to lead a peaceful and productive life. We want our families to be happy and successful, and we want our country to be run reasonably cleanly and competently, and be left in a better shape for our children.

We’ll accept a certain amount of injustice and messiness in our lives: Malaysians are very pragmatic by nature. But many of us are getting very distressed with the increasing bigotry, hypocrisy and corruption of those who insist on telling, and increasingly forcing, us to do things their way.

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