cakap cakap steadyaku47.

My name is Hussein Abdul Hamid. I am 75 years old. Warganegara : Malaysia. I choose to live in Australia and have lived here for the past 30 years. When I first arrived in Australia - in Perth to be exact…I arrived with a pregnant wife, a daughter and Aud$120 in my pocket. Nothing else. Somehow we managed.

I was last in KL about 12 years back. When I got back to Adelaide, I decided to start writing about the Malaysia I had just left behind. Things, in Malaysia, were changing in a way that disturbs me, and in a manner that does not auger well for Malaysia and Malaysians. It was depressing. And so I left, and this time, I knew it was for good.

For the past decade, and a bit more, I have blogged under steadyaku47.

What keeps me going? What makes me get up at 4am, get to my desk and try to write when there is nothing in my head? How do I write when it is 8 degrees outside, and I am in my sarong, singlet and slippers?

First, I switch on the heater. Make myself a strong black Coffee. Power on my computer and will myself to focus on my keyboard and reach deep down within me, for some thoughts, some ideas….something I have seen, read from messages sent to me….and some inspiration to begin…and soon I will begin to write.

And once I begin, I will be ok.

At that time of the morning, sometimes I allow my mind to wander. I think about my dear wife - we were together for five decades. It was a good marriage, and losing her to dementia was devastating. But somehow I managed.

I think about my daughter and my two grandkids in Canada. I have not seen them for ten years. How can I go ten years without meeting my daughter? Without meeting my grandchildren? If truth be told, you can't.

It is impossible to comprehend that I have not seen my daughter for over a decade, but I have learned to live with that. Canada is too far away, too expensive for us to visit one another. We have to accept reality. Life goes on.

For those of you who are now living under this corrupt BN govt and have no option but to bear that burden, I understand what you are enduring. We all can endure almost impossible odds if we set our minds to it, but there must be something at the end of it all to make it bearable.

Not seeing my daughter and my grandkids for a decade is bearable because I know they are okay in Canada. I am also okay in Australia. So the separation is hard, but bearable.

For you guys in Malaysia who have to live under the specter of a corrupt and arrogant BN government…what is at the end of it all? Surely what happened at PRU14 is a glimpse of what is possible, kan?

So for you and for me, we go on with our life, and we do what we can for now. We hope the future will be better.

And this is why I continue to write.

Almost every week, if not every day now, we, you and me, we are facing challenges that require a great deal of effort on our part, to face and overcome. We cannot even begin to comprehend what the future can bring for us, when today, even putting food on the table is becoming a daily challenge. We all have our cross to bear.

As long as there is hope, we survive.

The situation in Malaysia is not an impossible one. If there is no hope, I would have stopped writing a long time ago. Look at the ranks of the Opposition. Everything and every one that we need to make the Malaysia that we want, is there. They just have to get their act together and put Malaysia and Malaysians before everything else. It is as simple as that, and yet we know it is not that simple. So we, you and me, we need to keep an eye on things. ….and more relevant, we need to understand that winning in PRU15 is possible.

Lawan Mesti Lawan.