In the face of continual abuses of power and injustices in the land, it's a cinch to become jaded and cynical. And to lash back and demand change.
Nothing wrong with demanding change when change is due, of course. The danger is when we see the problem as existing solely "out there". At that point we start to exclude ourselves from the equation of what's wrong with our country.
But, as Ben Kingsley said, we must be the change we want to see. Or was it Gandhi?
Either way, it's true.
Instead of "Selamat Hari Malaysia", to me, it's "Hari Selamat Malaysia". (Not "Happy Malaysia Day" but "Save Malaysia Day" - not so nice in Bahasa Inggeris.)
Of course, we do whatever we can, but do you really think that we can fix the problems our country is in?
You can fix a car. Can you fix a rotting fish?
A country is not just systems and institutions. It is also people. And people are organic.
Organic entities don't break down. They rot.
Can you "fix" a rot?
The best you can do is cut off the rotting part before it spreads to the still-good part.
There's a Malay proverb about the rot of fish setting in first at the head...
Woah! Am I talking about cutting people off? Discarding them like used trash?
(It's tempting...)
Some or our eminent parliamentarians have said things to that effect - pendatang (migrants) go home, hahaha.
We're all pendatang. It's just a question of siapa datang lebih awal (who migrated earlier).
Some of us slighted ones think instead that people like these eminent parliamentarians should leave the nation.
But then don't we espouse the folly we denounce?
Of course.
"God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."
Even the worst sinners are given a measure of time in which to repent before it's too late and judgement bites.
Are parts of the nation rotting? We can't fix that. The only hope for the rot is healing, at best, miraculous regeneration, at worst.
The power of resurrection.
The power of God to change a person.
We have to do every little bit we can, rakyat jelata. But everything we can do is not enough. We have to look above.
We have petitioned the highest offices in our land. We have to go higher.
No, not the UN!
Higher still.
That's what the fasting is about. It is saying, we've reached the end of ourselves. We've exhausted our options. We need your help.
Heal us, save us.
It's about bowing down to pray and then rising up to walk out that prayer.
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