hope yet within BN?

Gerakan President and Energy, Water & Communications Minister Lim Keng Yaik has spoken out regarding the testy subject of Bangsa Malaysia. KY has been known for his outspoken manner and his no-nonsense approach towards issues and policies. But this is really quite surprising, as we finally see someone within the ruling coalition speaking of true unity! Not the false unity as propagated by the national front, but one that is sincere, that is coming from the heart of a Malaysian.

UMNO and UMNO Youth have taken the opportunity to wave the racial flag (or should it be the keris?) to spite KY's apparent disloyalty towards the social contract forged by our forefathers. The Malay supremists have accused KY of not respecting the federal constitution, undermining the Malay supremacy and trying to abolish the social contract. Here is what KY has to say:

"How do you expect non-Malays to pour their hearts and souls into the country, and to one day die for it if you keep harping on this?

"Flag-waving and singing the Negaraku are rituals, while true love for the nation lies in the heart."

"Back then, you could have said it [the social contract] and people like my father would have understood as he had been granted citizenship.

"But the younger generation, like my son, who gained his citizenship by virtue of being born here, views citizenship as a right and not a privilege that was granted.

"So you cannot just go on bringing it up to spite the non-Malays, as the context has changed."

I'd like to be an optimist and say that the Bangsa Malaysia agenda will be pursued wholeheartedly in the upcoming 9th Malaysia Plan. Yet, the realist inside me says that life will go on, or even for the worse, because of UMNO and UMNO Youth's unending obsession with the Malay supremacy; and subsequently, their quest for unending power in Malaysia.

The haze has come and gone, but the winds of change are not blowing away the shrouded future of our nation.