I HATE YOU DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME. I'M STILL WAITING FOR MY CSI NY TO BE UPLOADED.
That aside, I thought I'd have a sitdown and type about yesterday. A serious post, after all that fangirly rant about... well... everything. This post. About when Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States. When Americans decided that it was time for change. That they
could achieve change, and that they had the power to bring change to their country. And that made me think. About how
I feel about
my own country. And about other things.
I apologize in advance about the length. Much has been going on in my mind.
Years ago, my cousin and I were in this store, and we were looking at a bunch of keychains. You know, those with the horoscopes and stuff. Not that I BELIEVE in astrology, but it really was interesting. The one for Gemini said, "You are good in public speaking and politics", or something to that extent. And, back then, I was all, "Ew, public speaking and politics. Hate those", but my cousin pointed out something true - you may not like it, doesn't mean you're not
good at it. And, flash forward, I have Political Sciences as an option. (Chooi Si's all, "S'L, you really should do Political Sciences, it's something I totally see you doing," while Yenn Ling's all, "Do Natural Sciences (Biomed, sciences like that), because it's something I totally see you doing". I can see myself doing either one. I just don't know which yet.)
I was listening to the radio. They played will.i.am's Yes We Can. They were talking about Obama winning. "Hitz.fm Top 30 for Obama". Excitement, optimism for the President elect. 4 years ago, I don't remember hearing these sort of things. No "[radio station] for Bush". No. Barack Obama inspired the world. He set the world on fire with his message of change, hope, and belief that they can do it. He inspired the American youth, the world's youth. Yesterday, CNN was running over some demographics. 63% of Obama's voters were first time voters. He succeeded in harnessing all these voters, encouraged them to get out and vote.
Anyway, I wanted Obama to win. I hoped he would win. I knew it was possible for him to win. Even at 17, I feel that it is important that people my age should be aware of things around them. Not petty things, like who's dating who, and who'd dead on which TV show, but things like an idiot Pahang accountant suing the Penang state government for putting up multilingual roadsigns. My mum smirked and said that the guy was an insult to accountants (LOL, my mum's such an accounting elitist. But I think she totally deserves to say that), and that it was ridiculous for that new, unregistered party to sue the state government, when
1) Dude's from Pahang. What's he got to do with Penang?
2) His new party... They were wearing sashes. Which were labelled in JAWI. Kinda redundant, huh?
Anyway, back to Obama. Ever since reading about him back in... January? I found myself supporting him. Agreeing with his campaign of Change. Hope. Belief. How he identified with the American people that the race to the White House was not about
him. It was about
them. What
they believed in.
The people's own ideals.
Later, towards the end of the campaign, the McCain camp tried using that to spin this against Obama, to put it that he really is very left-leaning, that he was more Socialist than Democrat.
But did that matter? At the end of the day, what Barack Obama spoke was the truth. It was the people who chose their leader. That's how democracy works. It's all about the people. What
they want. Sure, he wanted to beat Hillary Clinton to represent the Democrats, but it was ultimately, the people who voted that brought him to where he was, where he is now.
I consider myself a bit of the feminist, but, I don't know - I did not connect with Hillary Clinton when she campaigned to be the first woman President. I respect her, and I absolutely admire her perseverance throughout the whole race, for not bowing out when people said that she "Wasn't feminine enough" because "She wore pantsuits all the time", and ridiculous things like that. The problem for me was that I felt she spent more time trying to prove that she was "Like one of the guys" instead of really showing that it takes a woman to shake things up in an organization. And, that a woman really
can bring order to the highest office in the world. That we may have different operational styles than men, but we can bring as much good as the next guy.
Perhaps I connected with Obama because he is not of
the mainstream race of America. Because he was African American. He didn't just send a message out to Americans - he sent a message out to the world. That, look, my people have lived in this land for years. For generations. We love this country as much as the next White guy. It is
our country.
Frankly, as a Malaysian of Chinese descent, the question that comes to my mind is - when will my country realize this ideal? That we should not be identified by the colour of our skin, or our religion? That, at the end of the day, I love this country as much as the Prime Minister, or even the King? Our Constitution was amended such that only Muslim Malays could hold the Prime Minister post in our country, because they were worried that 'Foreigners' brought in by the British would 'take over' the country.
It took America more than 200 years to reach this equality, to realize that patriotism should not be judged by the colour of your skin. What began when Rosa Parks sat in the bus, was powered on by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Dream was ultimately realized by Barack Obama.
Will it take Malaysia that long?
Should it take us that long? The sad thing really is that all our country's politicians only seem to be bickering about who is better than the other. We have passed 50 years of Independance. The Chinese, the Indians, have been hear for at least 75. We achieved Independance because of the unity of the 3 major races. Our forefathers reached a consensus. They agreed upon it.
I doubt the Malaysia of today is the Malaysia that Tunku Abdul Rahman, or ultimately, Dato' Onn Jaafar dreamt of. Racial tension is bad. And it makes me wonder - how close are we to achieving Wawasan 2020? It's in 12 years. I'm not seeing us moving forward - instead, we're moving back. It's like Proposition 8 in the US. Why do you want to
take away the rights of Homosexuals? Yes, they're gay and whatever, but they're not killing you or anything. And they're
human. They have
rights, which you are stripping.
UMNO recently ruled out allowing other races join the party (again). That was what ultimately made Dato' Onn Jaafar leave the party. The elitism that had bred within the party itself.
I know that today's newspapers had Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi saying that it WAS possible for a minority race to become Prime Minister, but the questions still stands. How long will it take for us to stand as Malaysians, for us to truly agree on a leader.
That being said, we don't need to talk about race. The first thing we need is a leader who truly has a vision, and is inspiring, like Obama is. I hold Dr Mahathir to the highest regard, for I feel that he is a leader of caliber. Forget that he probably is going senile nowadays, and should keep some comments to himself, but I feel that, after all he has done for the country (Okay, he had his really bad decisions, but if he wasn't good, he wouldn't have been Prime Minister for as long as he was), he deserves to complain sometimes.
I mean, look at it in a smaller scale - the prefects. Si Onn, I will admit, had a vision, and had a goal. Not all BODs shared that goal, but we still worked towards
something. To beat Adelle's year in regards of 'greatness'. Throughout our BODship, we were compared. With Winter's year, and with the years before that. But we believed and worked to be better than Winter's year. That goal was reached. Our next step was to be as good as, or better than, Adelle's year. We earned it. Pn Asmahan was great in guiding us, saying that Adelle's year may have been the Year of the Dragon, but we were better than that. We were THE year.
The one thing we had to beat them in - raising the next generation of prefects. An aspect I feel that Winter's year did not have any problems with, since we have such an awesome group of prefects, and the most who stayed on since Form 1.
So, at the end, when we retired, we reflected. "Did we do it? Do you think we managed to beat Adelle's year?" My answer? All this lays in our junior's hands. The degree of our success or failure depends on our juniors, because it was our responsibility to bring them up as the next batch of leaders.
Before deciding the BODs, looking at the batch of nominees, I felt that we definitely were in a pile of shit. The lack of real charisma or leadership, or vision was worrying. Here we had someone who felt he was definitely Head Prefect, while we had others who thought they deserved better. But as we put everyone onto the whiteboard, what posts we felt they would be most suitable in - I said that if they stuck together, worked together, put in as much effort into their post, whether it was one they wanted or not, they could continue the greatness of prefects.
So if the juniors sucked (They are currently at 'Disappointing'), of course we would have the right to complain. But at the end of the day, it was up to them to change. To improve.
I dream big. I admit it. I understand the scale of impossibility of becoming UN Secretary General. I know that it's one hell of a steep climb. But the fact is, I will try.
Sometimes, I sound, frankly, unpatriotic. Heck, I sometimes
feel unpatriotic. I
do wish I could leave the country, but I don't think I would ever want to revoke my citizenship for that of another country. I want to work in the UN. I can
represent Malaysia in the UN. I look forward to the day that I can do the one thing every citizen is given the right to do - vote. I don't have to be a leader in the country to feel like I have brought change to my own country. I can vote. Because my vote matters. Your vote matters. Every single piece of crossed out paper matters.
Super Tuesday was in February. Our elections were in March. The enthusiasm of the American people, the message sent out by Obama - it is a duty and a priviledge as a citizen to vote. Do it. I want to. I would love to. It is the power, the right of a citizen in a democratic country to choose our leaders.
I personally feel that the problem with Malaysia right now is the lack of proper leadership. I do not mind the governing party. These elections irked me when everyone was going "Vote Opposition!" Why? "Just because!"
I did not like it, because I felt that just because a majority of the party is awful, doesn't mean this particular representative was awful. Anwar Ibrahim and his whole "I have enough people to form a Government" thing, I feel, is blatant arrogance, ignorance, disrespect and disregard of the Democratic process. The people voted. Yes, they voted for Opposition, but the majority of the votes still went to BN. They won their seats. They won the right to govern. If you really are that good, wait for the next elections.
Of course, this does not excuse BN of any wrong. The leadership is flawed. The people inside have to work to do something.
As I listened to Obama's speech, I thought. I realized. We need to believe that we can do it.
A change has come to America. A change can come to Malaysia. The only thing is - when. When will all Malaysians put aside their differences and share a common goal - the harmony and prosperity of this nation?
Our nation?
Until then -
