Artist Ashaari Rahmat contributes the 2nd part of his series for Why Malaysia week. View Part 1 here.
“Why Malaysia?”
Because I made a conscious decision—to stay, to love this land, to embrace it’s people. For example, some people are born into certain religions, but that means little unless they make a conscious decision to embody the ideas of that religion; otherwise they convert (openly or secretly). People who go away/leave—it’s because they choose to (whether they admit it or not; many people like to blame “circumstances”).
So this drawing is more of an introspection. Before we make a decision, we’ll usually have an assessment of things (or something like that). In this matter, this “nation” or being a citizen to a nation—we need to ask ourselves some hard questions before we decide. Otherwise we drift through, which to some is all right—but again, that is their choice, no?
Ashaari Rahmat lives in TTDI and works with a local KL-based NGO (which focuses on medical relief—although he’s not involved in the medical aspects), and he likes Battlestar Galactica. And Firefly. And Dune.
Hello Ashaari, from your likes, you appear more like a GenX person. Can't disagree with you that choice is for the individual to decide. However, if we take views of Lisa Ng in her article, the key message is in rights to complaint on service rendered by the Government of the day and the weak position of the ordinary Rakyat in trying to make changes to this entrenched rotten system, bogged down by self-denial and arrogant "government servants". With all that goes on in trying to ensure their personal agendas are being continued, it is blindly obvious that these "government servants" are doing whatever necessary to protect their interests.
Many of us would simply hope and wish for a fair and just country of Malaysia that we all call "home". I like your message that we all have to do a part to clean up "our" mess. I pray and hope that there will be many many more out there sharing this opinion that it is our mess and we all have the obligation to clean it for a fairer and more just homeland for every Rakyat Malaysia.