Saya Anak Malaysia

I had a hurried but intense dinner conversation with Fazu during his whirlwind trip into KL some days ago.

"The country is going to the dogs" was part of the tete-a-tete.

Leave, pack up, run away, give up. Too much energy too much frustration too much. Much too much.

But who will remain to fight the good fight?

Who will brave the odds?

Who will lead the reform?

Who will be the heroes?

Who will save the country?

I have to say I marvel at the people I continually meet who have been 1) arbitrarily arrested
2) abducted by use of violence 3)detained indefinitely without trial 3) tortured 4) had loved ones killed 5)witnessed extrajudicial murders

and the list goes on.

People whose countries are ruled by madmen, despots, tyrants - and run because they have little alternative.

And yet, there are those who remain in such God forsaken places. Who stay to fight the good fight.

When the odds are stacked so high against them in favour of Pain of the Greatest Intensity - places where death itself is a release and mercy.

Yet they choose to continue.

What will I do, I wonder.

What will I do indeed - stay and mount a struggle now? Berhijrah first and plan reform for later? Give up altogether? Sink into the commonplace apathy that has bound our nation? Seek development from an alternative platform? Organize change through remote/from afar?

What makes a nation great? How does it make the quantum leap from moral backwaters to civilizational glory?

Whose duty is it?