'Maju' together for true Merdeka

From ground up: Only a few Malayans had to take arms in the nation's struggle for freedom, like these local women who joined the Malayan Home Guard troops during the height of the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s. - National Archive

YESTERDAY I read a heart-wrenching piece by one of our towering Malays in academia, Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi, entitled “A Meaningless Merdeka”, where he laments on the sliding down state of the nation and our failing society. His utter despondency on the futility of trying to save our beloved Malaysia in a climate where in his words, “"peddler of religious capitalism comes to this country blaring insults... and ministers have dinners with him”" and "“Old Malaysia has just been given a new lease of life by a heart bypass”", seem like the norm today among the real thinking-class of Malaysia. His article hit every point like a nail-gun to the head.

Tajuddin was scathing and uncompromising in his words. I quote – "Malaysia is on a certain road of destruction…" and he continues with this damning pronouncement – " I can definitely say that Malaysia is a failure".