Will a better year finally hop in?

ON Jan 22, the Lunar New Year of the Water Rabbit will begin. It would have been my late father’s year if he were still with us. He would be a 96-year-old rabbit person. Slowed by age and illnesses, he wouldn’t be as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as the animal but he did have many of its qualities and characteristics.

I grew up in a noisy household of people born in the Years of the Dragon, Dog, Horse, Snake, Goat, Monkey and Pig (that’s me), and it amused us kids that Dad was the shy and timid Rabbit, which seemed incongruous with his role as the head of the family.

Dad was indeed reserved and never sought the limelight for himself. Like the rabbit that is a relatively silent creature (there is no sound associated with the animal like how a dog barks, a cat meows and a cow moos), Dad was a man of few words.

In Chinese astrology, the rabbit is associated with the qualities of gentleness, kindness, patience and artistic creativity, which describe Dad to a T. He was all that, and while he never thought of himself as an artist, he could draw very well if he put his mind to it.

He was more of an artisan as he loved making things, like study tables and bookcases for his children, as well structures for his interests like an orchid stand, chicken coop, barbecue stove, often fashioned from leftover or discarded items – the stove was built on my sister’s baby walker.

The rabbit is considered to be the luckiest of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. That association with luck is found in many other cultures. In the West, there is the notion that carrying a rabbit’s foot and saying “rabbit, rabbit” on the first day of the month will bless the person with good luck for the rest of the month. Believe or not, America’s longest serving president Franklin D. Roosevelt did both, according to history.com.

Truly, if the world needs one thing this year it is a vast dose of good luck instead of more vaccines.

In 2022, the Year of the Tiger, the hope was that the powerful animal would fight the “evil” plaguing the world, aka Covid-19. Indeed, most of the world managed to reopen economies and borders and loosen the crippling grip of the pandemic.

But there were also all kinds of natural disasters in just about every part of the world, be it crippling snowstorms, heavy rain and floods, droughts, killer heatwaves, volcano eruptions, forest fires, earthquakes or hurricanes and cyclones. Thousands were killed or injured and there was enormous property damage.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific reported that floods were the deadliest, accounting for 74.4% of disaster events in the region and 88.4% of total deaths globally.

Yet I think we became numb to all the bad news because the disasters were happening so frequently. It took the Dec 16 Batang Kali landslide in Selangor that took 31 lives to shake us out of our numb state.

Apart from the natural disasters, we also grew numb to the continuing war in Ukraine, so too the gun shootings that continue to take place in US cities. The sole civilian “man-made” disaster that garnered world attention was the shocking Seoul Halloween crowd crush that killed 159 people and injured 195 others.

The Year of the Tiger turned out to be indeed ferocious.

Now hops in a furry little critter whose adorable cuteness can melt the hardest hearts, and again our hope floats. The rabbit symbolises patience and its gentle nature heralds a year that should be more peaceful, with less anger and frustration, so says thechinesezodiac.org.

I know scientific-minded people will say this is superstitious mumbo jumbo – but so what? When times are bad, we look for hope wherever we can find it.

Last year, our country managed to emerge intact, without violence or protest, from a difficult, divisive general election that saw Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim finally becoming Prime Minister.

After three years of tumultuous political instability, Malaysians just long for a steady hand at the tiller and for a strong leader with a team that will focus on setting a course for progress, development and well-being for all citizens without playing the race and religion cards. That’s our most cherished and desperate hope.

Of course, it won’t be easy when there are always selfish politicians with little integrity who continue to try to grab power for themselves, as what’s happening in Sabah.

In Anwar’s Cabinet there are two ministers who are Water Rabbits and share very close birthdates: Law Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman born on Dec 31, 1963, and Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail born on Dec 7, 1963.

Water rabbits are said to be amicable and are able to adjust readily to different conditions. They prefer to avoid conflict but if necessary, they will approach the confrontational situation calmly; in any group, they are regarded as the peacemakers. However, they are also said to have a weak mindset and principles. I have no idea how accurately this applies to the two ministers but let’s hope they have more of the first part than the latter!

As for our PM, he was born in the porcine year of 1947. Boar people are typically described as having an honest and frank personality, a strong sense of justice and are extremely loyal to friends. But because of their trusting nature, they can be gullible and easily deceived by the unscrupulous. This perhaps explains his political fortunes of the past.

In 2023, fire boars, like Anwar, will have to deal with trouble-making opponents requiring delicate handling and diplomacy. But the good news is they are predicted to see great improvements in their relationships with colleagues and leaders, with previous conflicts being resolved. Not only that, they will have the resources and skills to succeed with specific goals.

Mumbo jumbo or not, it doesn’t hurt to hope that the Year of the Rabbit will actually bring the calm and luck the world sorely needs, and for Malaysia, a leader who went through the school of the hardest knocks and is therefore seasoned and savvy enough to avoid political traps and pitfalls and show himself to be the man for all seasons.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.