Now, 19 years later, (that's almost 2 decades!) it breaks my heart all the time when I see parents asking for RM30k to pay for their child's open heart surgery, who had jantung berlubang just as I did. Why? Because these children were born in Malaysia and I was born in the United Kingdom.
I don't have a UK citizenship. We were foreigners. We were treated regardless.
Alhamdulillah, I have been given the privilege to travel to various different countries. I have seen how things are really like in both the third world countries as well as how things are like in developed countries. From the symphony of car honks in Bangladesh to the United Kingdom's efficient tube station, I feel blessed to live in Malaysia but at the same time, I wonder how come there is so little change during the 17 years I live in Malaysia.
Yes, 17 years ago, we didn't have KLCC, we didn't have SMART tunnel, we didn't have the monorail, we didn't have the beautiful Putrajaya. If we look at the surface of Malaysia - literally - as in if you look at Malaysia from an aeroplane window, we are at par to most of the developed countries.But if you walk in the streets, go into the hospitals, go into the classrooms, go into the homes, go into the libraries and go into the minds of Malaysians, you'll see that we are so far from what we appear to be.
This is why I want a better Malaysia.
We are 7 years away from the year 2020. We are supposedly 7 years away from becoming a 'developed' nation.But, we are in billions of ringgits of debt yet people still have to pay for their dying's child surgery - which they couldn't even afford! Where did the money go?
During a monday morning, in one of IJN's outpatient clinic, a one-legged man had to stand to wait to see the doctor because there weren't any seats available for him. We don't have enough doctors, our doctors are overworked and underpaid. That is why most of them are so grumpy all the time. (Don't try me, I've seen enough doctors to come up with that conclusion)
The majority of our SPM leavers have no clue what they want to pursue in their life, 7 year old kids in developed countries dream of becoming aerenotical engineers, software engineers, zoologists, microbiologists, historians, journalists, teachers, astrophysicists. Our education system is so flawed I have no words to describe it. Why do I say that? Because 90% of school students want to be doctors, because they have no idea what they're learning and why they are learning it, they have no idea what they want to do with their future. I'm not even going to mention the whole PPSMI issue. We were treated like guinea pigs, learning science and mathematics in english, and then in malay, and then in english again, and then in malay again. Have you ever been in a Malaysian classroom? Did you realise how the majority of the students never ask any questions? I don't know why and how that happened but that's gotta change.
If you walk in the streets of Malaysia, you can see people spitting, people throwing rubbish everywhere, people cutting queues, cashiers and salesgirl giving you a bad day with their bad attitude towards you. You can see unethical behavior and low class mentality soo easily in Malaysia. In developed countries you can rarely see those things. Their social ethics and awareness is way above ours. They smile at you, they don't roll their eyes if you put back the t-shirt you unfolded which you decided not to buy, they don't cut queues, you can close your eyes crossing at the zebra crossing, they don't throw rubbish in the streets, their toilets are clean. They rode bicycles to work, their drivers actually obey the law. In developed countries, their shops and products have a 30 day return policies. In Malaysia, most of the stores doesn't even have a return policy. We need to develop Malaysians more than we need to develop Malaysia.
I'm not even going to go to our public transportation, the social illnesses, the crime rates and the corruptions. There are so many things we need to improve. One cannot be thankful to those who are not carrying out their responsibility responsibly. The government holds a HUGE responsibility, and they are not doing good enough.
Perhaps if we compare things nowadays with how things are 56 years back, sure, we've come a long way since. Alhamdulillah for that. But if you compare how things are now and how things are two decades ago,there isn't much difference. I guess that explains why the majority of our older generation have an opposing political stance than most of us youth. Our parents have witness a better Malaysia throughout their lives, but us youth, haven't.
I don't care who is going to rule Malaysia, but I demand for a better Malaysia. And all of us should take part in that. Not just the government.
I am 19, too bad, I cannot vote. But I can do something better than that. I can pray, and I can make little changes. If all of us make small changes to the things we wish could be better, then we will have a better Malaysia in no time.
'.....Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they can change what is in themselves........' [13:11]
'Be the change you want to see in the world' - Mahatma Gandhi
P/S : I wish for a change this coming election, but remember, Allah made the things the way they were and he had already planned for what is to come. Sowhatever happens, just keep calm and pray for a better Malaysia. (After you've done your part that is)
credited : Khodijah Amin
