I respect your opinion, freelunch2020, but I’m afraid I can’t agree. If all the decent people who can leave leave, yes, we’ll leave the robbers to their pickings, but we’ll also be leaving millions of people who had to stay. Not everyone can leave - who would take all of us, especially the uneducated, unskilled workers? Yes, we could become a source of cheap labour, but the cost in human terms for these millions would be horrendous. Anarchy, infrastructural collapse, endemic poverty, suffering for millions of innocents - for the children will pay for the inaction of their parents, even if you refuse to regard any adult as innocent.

I just can’t see myself doing that. No, I’m not a Chinese Malaysian, but some of my dearest friends are, and I feel their pain very keenly indeed. I understand that you would not want to be complicit in the status quo, but to me, abandonment exacts a higher price.

We may not save the country. 50 years from now, after 50 years of sticking it out, maybe all we can do then is watch the country burn. But at least in those 50 years, we would have made some small difference, saved at least a few fellow Malaysians from destitution and suffering, even for a few years, if not the whole period. And if ALL of us stay on, there may just be enough of us to turn things round. At worst, a few are saved, at best, all are saved, and the criminals brought to justice. But if we leave, none are saved.

That’s why I’m staying on, and I hope that even if you will not, not everyone will leave - because each decent person who stays increases our chances of actually pulling this off.

It’s pure reflection of Bangsa Malaysia

Change? I’m not so optimistic. And probably for that same reason, I’m not optimistic of the success of any sort of revolution. I suppose we could either leave Malaysia or stay and watch it run to the ground.

And when Malaysia hits rock bottom, who will bear the blame?

“Staying in Malaysia may make a racist out of me, and that’s my greatest fear.”. I feel you, freelunch2020.

I had the same problem when thinking of an appropriate Merdeka post and finally did one on the apathy of urban professionals, especially among the Chinese, on this supposedly historic 50th celebration.

On my part, I had a rather melancholic Merdeka and struggled to find some positive points to highlight but was stuck with the same old tolerance, muhibbah, masyarakat majmuk, festivals, asian values themes. I suspected it may be a result of having to write countless essays on those topics in school and being exposed to the mainstream media, print and tv, since young — in those days, I believed the newspaper, which caused me to be shocked to see Anwar Ibrahim in real life who was quite different from the super-touched-up photos.

As a Malaysian Chinese, I have seen too many injustices and have tried to ‘close-one-eye’ but I ask myself where is this (not my) country going. And I concluded that the trends of a dwindling Chinese population, increasing Islamisation and the perpetuation of the Never Ending/Enough Policy points that foreign shores are better options for educated and skilled Malaysian Chinese.

At one point, perhaps in my younger days, I too have thought of revolution. Like you said, how much do they government think the Chinese can take without retaliation.

These threats of a repeat of May 13 is as good as an admission by UMNO that they manufacture violence to stay in power — a common practice throughout the world like the suspicious 9/11 bombings where two jumbo jets were able to get into New York airspace undetected.

But I urge people not to retaliate in violence but to retaliate by emigrating and hence crippling the country of its most valuable resource — human capital.

One day, Malaysia’s natural resources will be depleted and if it doesn’t have any homegrown industries with a competitive advantage, Malaysians main export may be cheap foreign labour like the Philippines.

Looking at the facts, our education system is in the pits and may take another 50 years to repair. Among the most important factors to churn out capable thinking students are dedicated and well-trained teachers and a meritocratic environment. Both these factors are absent and I don’t see how they can find good trainers to TRAIN teachers these days.

Innovation is another imaginary idea in Malaysia. Creativity is seldom encouraged with our most basic freedom to express ourselves suppressed by the fascist government (fascist, yes…they are more fascist than ever…).

There is effectively no rule of law in Malaysia as the judiciary is corrupted to the core despite allegations otherwise. How else would someone like Eric Chia fail to be convicted and just look at the current Mongolian Murder Mystery where both the prosecution and police appear to be competing to be more incompetent?

With no rule of law, how will ordinary citizens be protected? It seems that money rules in Malaysia. Remember the young Chinese boy who was found murdered in a Datuk’s house? The Datuk was also not found guilty.

So revolution? Erm, not my style. Why get mad when you can get even? Better to emigrate to countries who will grant Malaysian Chinese with the right skills FULL citizenship. At the end of the day, the Chinese community in those countries are large enough for most people to feel comfortable. And your children’s education is looked after or at least comparatively affordable as you would be earning in the respective currency.

Which is another reason I stopped political blogging as I have lost hope in Malaysia. For those who are nostalgic and like their nasi lemak, well, then your would just have to grin and bear at the injustices from Zakaria to Lina Joy. Alternatively, you can get a taste of real freedom as a FULL citizen of another country and enjoy the occasional nasi lemak at a restaurant.

Maybe I am just having an emotional rant but looking at Namewee and another new Mamula Moon music video, it seems that the sentiments of Chinese Malaysians especially the students remain unchanged. Remembering how gangster kids threatened Chinese students at UPM is a reflection of our society at large.

The Chinese has done so much to build the country’s economy and even infrastructure via Ali Baba arrangements. And all UMNO can talk about is ‘bangsa induk’ and ‘agama, bangsa, negara’.

UMNO, I want you to read this, especially Nazri and Muhd Taib, YOU GUYS ARE DAMN KOLOT AND RACIST!

Staying in Malaysia may make a racist out of me, and that’s my greatest fear. For I have no choice but to describe my experience in racial terms for that’s how society is segregated by the NEP.

Identifying oneself based on your ethnic group is not racist but formulating unfair policies or making decisions based on ethnicity is racist, discrimination is racist not description.

And given our history fighting the communist insurgency, the word “revolution” has very, very dirty connotations.

I don’t know.