My Malaysian Dream

Well, technically it is still 31 August in Malaysia. So, I will just write down some of my hopes and (dare I say) dreams for the country, on her 51st birthday. I think that most of these things are very obvious although there are a few little things that I would like to change that may be a little less so. So, in no particular order, here they are:

• Changing our Rukun Negara (National Creed)
  Like most other Malaysians, I am totally fed up by how religion has become a political tool. So, I would suggest that we get rid of the first item in our creed, Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan (Trust in God). I have a problem with that because I do not believe in God/Gods. So, that means that I cannot honestly pledge myself to that belief. So, let us just get rid of any random religious references that are thoroughly irrelevant as a nation.
• Changing our National Anthem (Negaraku)
  There is that line in the anthem that refers to God again: Rahmat bahagia, Tuhan kurniakan that I am not particularly comfortable with. It just serves to reinforce certain religious believes of some people over the others. I see it as a form of discrimination, forcing someone who doesn’t believe in God/Gods to ask for diving blessing. Also, we should use an original melody instead of borrowing the tune from an old love song.
• Changing our Perlembagaan (Constitution)
  Okay, there are lots of bits of the Constitution that require changing. However, I doubt that this would be possible simply because neither alliances in parliament have the sufficient majority to amend things. But if they did, I would like all religious references taken out of the Constitution. Islam will always remain the majority religion in Malaysia but Malaysia cannot possible profess any religion, it is silly to suggest that Malaysia (as an entity) is a Muslim. It is not even a living creature.
• Changing our Politics
  Of course, politics has got to change. While the racial based politics may have worked well in the past, it is kind of outdated today. People around the world are transcending national boundaries and racial identities. The same thing is happening in Malaysia. We are global citizens and it is silly to think that we can still so easily dice people up by skin colour and expect it to go down well. So, the politicians need to find some new way to dice us up and I am sure that there are many other equally arbitrary ways to do it.
• Change our Polis Di-Raja Malaysia (Royal Malaysian Police)
  The only reason that a former house mate of mine wanted to join the police force was because it paid better than any other graduate job on the market and when he said “pay” he didn’t actually mean the official salary, which isn’t very much to begin with. So, people no longer trust the police to actually do any policing and recent cases in Malaysia don’t make things any better. So, let us try to turn our police force into a respectable occupation that people would aspire to join, in order to make a positive contribution to society.