DEMOCRACY, as we understand it in Malaysia, means every eligible citizen can cast one vote for one person or party at the federal level and one vote at the state level. There is supposed to be another vote at the council level but we do not practise that, not since I became eligible to vote decades ago, anyway.

This National Day, the writer asks fellow citizens to think of what they can do for the country.

SOMETHING ugly is happening to Malaysia. We have a group of citizens who belong to a particular political party declaring other ­citizens as “enemies of Islam”.

Books are ‘downloads’ of human thoughts and aspirations, and can be passed on meaningfully to the next generation.

MY wife Norhayati Yusof and I tied the knot – or in Islam, pronounced the akad nikah – on July 15, 1984. Yes, yesterday was our 40th anniversary, I am happy to say.

ABOUT five years ago, I started talking about the idea of building a parallel Malaysia. Because after 20 years of watching, responding to, writing and reflecting academically on many issues of social mistrust and religious conflict, I got to thinking that Malaysia seems like a terribly ill patient.

A new book addressing how people in the two Bornean parts of Malaysia feel about the nation prompts the columnist to re-examine some issues.

Where are the innovative thinkers who can look beyond what we want now and dream of how to live in the future?

Incidents that should have rung alarm bells about how Malaysian university students think about this country are being ignored.

MALAYSIANS often react strongly to news about how the country is doing according to international performance indices in all sorts of areas, from education and press freedom levels to how happy we are.

The columnist hopes his fellow Malaysians are not pursuing impossibilities and wishing for the wrong thing.

TWO recent examples of the concept of “freedom of speech” prompted this week’s column.