The truth as seen by a visitor.

Having been caught by the rain during the last few evenings and yet not having to suffer the consequences, I was intending to write on immunity this day. However, this letter from a tourist which appeared in the Star newspaper takes me to something more pressing in my country, Malaysia. Let us look at a part of what this tourist has written.

"But what’s most outstanding were the people. No matter of which race and religion, all of them share the same traits: open and extremely friendly.

They are very polite and always helpful. They seemed to get along well with each other in their social lives and working relationships. I did not see any unpleasant incident, unlike in so many other places where social segregation and disturbances are clearly visible.

Despite their differences, the people here appeared to me as genuine Malaysians. Happy is the country where people can live in harmony and understanding with their neighbours and not bother about colour, religion or ethnicity."

There is so much truth in what this tourist has written. I agree whole-heartedly with his impressions of Malaysians from all walks of life. Malaysians as a whole get along very well with each other no matter their differences in race, culture or religion. We respect each others' belief and practices. We never think of our friends as immigrants from another land for none of us are; we are born in this land and this is our country.

Unfortunately, we have powerful, influential political leaders who abuse their positions to ram into our minds every so often that some are more supreme than others, that they are the guardians of one particular community despite their standing as national leaders, that the minority people are less deserving of being equal in every way to the majority and these minority are still considered 'immigrants'.

Lately, there was the government creating a foundation for just one race with the so called noble idea of helping the poor having a share of properties in the country which according to them would otherwise be in the hands of the elite. Which elite? If it is to help the poor, every community has its poor. Such a foundation to help the poor ought to be for all poor Malaysians and not just for one community. Who actually benefits from such a foundation? It is the rich in that community who will become even richer. How much can the poor, especially those who live from hand to mouth benefit from such a foundation? With this crooked thinking (How true is knowledge I gained from the book 'Straight and Crooked Thinking'.)politicians find ways to gain at the expense of the really poor whose name they abuse. Can it be a 1Malaysia when projects usually divide the people?

Well, I am sorry but most Malaysian politicians I detest.