Malaysia, what is happening?

I love my home country. But sometimes, I just have to wonder what is happening. Today, after reading all the depressing news, I feel that it's time to lament again. Malaysia, what the f*@k is happening?

I'm at least old enough to remember the good days of the 90s. The country was flourishing and we could see evidence of this in the rapid growth and expansion of infrastructure. The economy was booming with greater than 7% annual growth and low inflation ('kempen inflasi sifar' anyone?) for more than a decade. And the people were happy as we felt that we were actually going somewhere. People around the world started to know who we were and what we stood for. We drew respect and admiration from others around the region. Some will even say that we instilled fear in certain countries around the world. Those days, it was a proud thing to be Malaysian.

Granted that the '97/8 economic crisis took a toll on us (it affected me in a fairly personal way) but we were still certain that we would pull through in the end simply because of the solid foundation that we've built the decades before. Of all the countries seriously affected, we carved our own way out (Frank Sinatra anyone?). I don't think that anyone will have such fantasies if we were to be hit by a similar crisis today. At the turn of the millenium, we were coming out of the crisis strong and seemed to be headed upwards once again.

Then, something happened. A scant 5 years later, we're floundering, the economy is being sucked dry and the rakyat are no longer happy. We got derailed so quickly. We are no longer the towering figure that we used to be as every single one of our neighbours seem to have overtaken us. We are no longer feared but ridiculed by every other person in this world. Everything that could go wrong, seems to have. I wonder how much more abuse we can take before the rakyat start taking to the streets.

We had a grand vision once. It was called 2020. We have lost the vision. Rather, the vision has been redefined too many times in the last few years and has become more a buzzword now. We need to regain the direction. We need someone with enough balls in the driver's seat, someone who can get things done. However, looking at the current crop of politicians, there doesn't seem to be anyone who can do the job. We need a Barrack Obama of Malaysia. We need a dark horse. Someone to give us a glimmer of hope, that not all is lost.

I wonder if we should kick all the old farts out of parliament in the next election. Some say that the devil you know is better than the one you don't. However, if we've already hit rock bottom, there really isn't anywhere else to go except up. So, maybe we should give it a shot.

* gfdl image from wikipedia *