Courtesy of TMI:
Jalan tetap jalan — personal reflections of HS
While it would seem too early for me to comment meaningfully on the national implications of YB Kamalanathan’s election to Parliament, I thought I would share a few stories from my own journey during this campaign.
One of the primary reasons I first associated with PKR was a belief in the need for true multi-racialism in this country — something that went beyond posters of Ali, Ah Chong and Muthu.
Co-operation amongst non-BN parties have historically been challenging. Trying to bridge the gap between two of Malaysia’s oldest parties, PAS and DAP, has always been a rocky road. The racial divide sometimes seemed too wide to cross — a belief institutionalised in the separate but “equal” Barisan Nasional (BN) system.
Since the formation of Pakatan Rakyat (PR), however, we have seen considerable glimmers of hope. It is this hope that I felt alive and well throughout this past week.
In projects as simple as stuffing envelopes to send to voters, I have seen the coming together of elements in Malaysian society that so rarely mix. In 50 years of BN rule, neighbours have drifted apart as political parties deepened ethnic divides to consolidate their own power.
Crossing that divide has become harder over the years, but this has not stopped Malaysians of goodwill from trying.
That evening I spent sticking thousands of addresses onto envelopes, I watched as tudung-clad ladies sat with old Chinese and Indian uncles, volunteers from all three Pakatan parties, and volunteers with no party at all, came together to help give Hulu Selangor a Member of Parliament with guts and integrity.
I met a PAS-affiliated family whose father and son went for free Hokkien classes (not even Mandarin! Ai pia, ciak eh ia!) provided by an elderly neighbour.
In Hulu Selangor, I watched YB Ng Suee Lim delighting audiences in Javanese, and later heard another PAS leader who came all the way from Sarawak and charmed a crowd in Serendah with his absolutely flawless command of Mandarin.
On Nomination Day, I saw Malaysians of all races having no qualms carrying any of the three Pakatan flags, and on Saturday night in Kuala Kubu Bharu, young Muslims in white kopiars proudly bearing the rocket.
Ironically, I realise that a large portion of my own personal experience with true Malaysian diversity has in fact been through politics.
I’ll be the first to admit that Pakatan has plenty of room for improvement when it comes to management, planning and execution. Even as some frustrations hit me early in the campaign, all these observations made me see how this alliance had come to embody the hopes of so many.
I saw how the 2008 wave had not subsided one bit, but had instead emboldened many more to step forward and try to do their part. I met volunteers who would drive to KKB all the way from KL and back almost every night, to pitch in whatever they could — again crossing ethnic divides to work closely with people they had never met before.
In the party itself, the grassroots came out in true strength — converging on this quiet corner of our nation from every state: Perlis to Johor, Penang to Sabah. In the dorms they provided for us, youth who helped put up flags slept alongside Members of Parliament (if BN would like to pay me RM 50,000 as well, I might be persuaded to divulge which ones of them snore).
Those who could not travel helped in other ways. In managing the content for the campaign website, I was aided by a multi-ethnic group of young Malaysians scattered across the globe — translating, wrestling with HTML, sourcing pictures and much more — all in the hopes of making a Malaysia they will one day be proud to come home to.
Despite the way politics drives us all mad sometimes, all this dedication and fire gave me a true glimpse into Malaysia’s future.
Though we may be blocked by multi-million dollar bribes, shenanigans by the Election Commission, racism most heinous, and (most of all) the vested interests of the ruling elite, this core of Malaysians will never be shaken — and neither will their dedication towards upholding integrity, and building a better Malaysia for all.
What a warm, warm thought.
In the last night of the campaign, the police blocked the roads leading to the KKB stadium, forcing those who wanted to attend to walk some two kilometres. I was more than a little grumpy about this.
Along the road though, we made friends and shared tales about justice and our future; connections worth some sweat and worn shoes. As we walked, I tried to invoke the battle cry often heard in the aftermath of our loss on Sunday and a gentleman quipped a variation: Jalan tetap jalan!
And thus, like Disney’s Robinsons, we keep moving forward. As I learnt from one of my co-workers, it’s just like the Reverend King said: the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
