Unity is power.

Who works as a group at all times? Who gangs together all the time when they set out on a task? From the word 'gang' we get gangsters. That's right! Gangsters. These people do whatever they want through the gang because they understand very well the power of the gang.

To gang together is to unite. Gangsters understand that as an individual they are unable to terrorise society. But when they group together and approach one or two persons or even an ununited group, they are powerful enough to put terror into the hearts of ordinary people.

However, should anybody use unity to fight them, they can become the losers, especially when the other united group is larger than theirs.

On Wednesday, the 4th of November, 2009, I read in theStar online about two robbers who died while trying to escape from people at the Selayang Wet Market. They made the mistake of robbing someone the people had a liking for, a regular customer. The two robbers and some accomplices tried to run when these people gave chase. Unfortunately for them, two of them were cornered and assaulted, thus killed in the process.

As we can see, unity is the way to overcome or defeat evil forces. Although it is not right to kill those two robbers, they asked for such a fate through using weapons. I believe those people at that wet market had no intention to kill but to show those robbers that they too had the power to safeguard the people in their place. In the process of protecting someone, the injury caused was a little too much.

Their unity is a good thing. It shows very clearly that people in society must be united at all times in protecting each and every member of their society in order to ensure their own safety.

In a country, unity is also important. It is a power even politicians will fear. If people who are oppressed or not treated fairly were to be united at the ballot box, then the government of the day has to be fair to every citizen and not just the majority or a certain race. The power is there. The only thing we have to ensure such power is always in our hands is to discourage greed. At election time, some people choose unwisely for a few reasons. One of them is greed. They, their organisation or their community is given some extra allocations and donations, and such people forget the bigger goal or the more important good that their act has thrown away.

Sometimes it is their ego. A minister comes to the community leader's house, gives his children things and his pride becomes the fall of the community. When greed and ego become obstacles in the path of unity, many will become weaker and the greater goal is lost.

Therefore, people, to be strong, must learn to unite as a group and fight injustice, corruption and all kinds of evil in this world.