cakap cakap...why should I get out of bed?

Selamat Pagi Malaysia.

Some of you ask me why you should get out of bed when there is nothing out there in Bolehland that can give you reason to do so. The HP payment for the car is overdue, you have little left to pay for the rent due at the end of the month and the only thing left to take you and your family of three to the end of the month, is RM100 in your pocket! Why should you get out of bed? Today will be the same as yesterday, if not only worse.

I know the hardship that many Malaysians are facing. I know because you tell me. I know because I read about how you ask, plead and beg your government to do something to lighten your daily burden. You tell me how you are only able to continue to survive because other Malaysian, strangers, have been there to share with you what little they have. Rakyat menolong rakyat. So many Malaysians living day to day, kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang. Every one hoping, praying, even pleading with the Almighty for better days ahead. But does the Almighty ever listen?

Let me tell you why I get out of bed every morning, 6000kms away from Bolehland, far, far away from the maddening political madness that dominates every thing Malaysian and certainly, under no concern that today, the powers that be, may be knocking on my door for something I posted yesterday. Let me tell you why I wake up every morning, go to my keyboard and write about my beloved Malaysia, the country I have not been back to, for over eleven years.

“The Audacity of Hope” is a book Barrack Obama wrote, outlining his vision of how the US can move beyond its divisions to tackle problems it faces. That phrase “The Audacity of Hope” is with me every day in many way.

Why did I wake up this morning? I woke every morning knowing that today is a brand-new day, and I am certain that it will be a better day than yesterday.

Yesterday I did not know that “Parti Warisan terbuka untuk mengadakan kerjasama pintar dengan mana-mana parti termasuk ….Barisan Nasional… pada PRU15 kata Shafie Apdal” Really Shafie? So today I know that for Shafie, political power is what he wants at any costs. And I am better for knowing that because I now see Shafie in a different light.

Yesterday I did not know what Rafizi and Nurrul will do upon their return to PKR. Now I know…they intend to make PH into a viable alternative to BN and give Malaysians that choice at PRU15. I am the better for knowing that.

Yesterday I did not know who else had their hand in the 1MDB Cookie jar. Early this morning the following message forwarded to me via WhatsApp. Now I know that almost everyone, bar you and me, had their hands in the cookie jar.

Every morning when I get out of bed, hope springs eternal within me that maybe, today, is the day when there is no more going back to yesterday and to the many yesterdays before, when we all felt that nothing can bring back that time at PRU 14 when we all tasted, for the first time, the euphoria of what can be….even if it was for a brief moment. We all know now that electoral victory is possible.

I am known to be a prolific writer. I write every day. Sometimes, two or three articles a day. I can do this because I believe that change is possible, and I want to share with you guys that belief, in the hope that you can feel what is beating within the heart of this 75-year-old man, 6000kms away in Melbourne. We can, and we must hope for a better tomorrow!

And I remember our brother Bernard Khoo @ Zorro Unmasked, my dear classmate Captain Yusof Ahmad @ Ancient Mariner and others who have left us. I remember the enthusiasm they had within their writings and their firm belief that change has to come, for no country, no people, nobody should have to put up with what these kleptocratic corrupt and arrogant politicians are doing to our beloved Malaysia.

And that is why my friend, I wake up every morning, go to my keyboard, and try to write one more write, one more posting, one more article, in the hope that maybe, just maybe, that will be the article that will move just one of you to get off your behind and go do what you must: rid our nation of these political pariahs that have made us pariahs in the eyes of so many other nations. Enough said.