COMMENT | Malaysia Berjaya?

Malaysia kita sudah berjaya

Aman makmur bahagia

Malaysia abadi selamanya

Berjaya dan berjaya

Berbagai kaum sudah berikrar

Menuju cita-cita

Satu bangsa satu negara

Malaysia berjaya

Dari Perlis sampailah ke Sabah

Kita sudah merdeka

Negara makmur rakyat mewah

Kita sudah berjaya

Dengan semboyan kita berjaya

Menuju di angkasa

Satu bangsa satu negara

Malaysia berjaya

Saiful Bahri Elyas, sung by Jamaludin Alias (according to Wikipedia)

QUESTION TIME | I love this song - so simple, so stirring, so inspirational, so full of hope, so inclusive, so captivating, so musical and so rhythmic providing in just a few words the essential ingredients for a successful Malaysia. One people, one nation going forward making a success of itself for everyone. The cadence is appropriately that of a march.

You can hear various versions of the song set to videos on the net but this one that I found reflects the pace and spirit of the times in which the nation was born and of the aspirations then.

Sadly, as we celebrate Malaysia’s formation - 57 years ago yesterday - it sobers and shrinks the spirit to face the reality that nothing of the core dreams has transpired and it remains an enduring illusion. The reason: the poor quality of leadership who pawned the future of the country to their own self-interests.

Ten days from Malaysia Day, Sabah, one of the three territories that formed Malaysia, the other two being Sarawak and Singapore (which was expelled in 1965), goes to the polls because the chief minister asked for the assembly to be dissolved after rival leader Musa Aman claimed he had the majority support to become chief minister following 16 defections.

Just days before that Musa, who had been facing 46 charges of money laundering and corruption involving timber concessions in Sabah, had all his charges inexplicably dropped...