EACH year when National Day comes around on Aug 31, the nation does its soul searching. Reflections on issues such as national unity and integration or the country’s development goals and their implications come to the fore as events unfolding in the months and weeks before reveal how bare the threads of social cohesion and multiculturalism are and how nebulous economic prosperity and inclusiveness seem in the fabric of the nation.
Once again we wonder about the real freedoms that “merdeka” has brought to the nation and its people. We wonder what it really means to have emerged out of the global backwaters and attempt to join the league of fully developed nations. Has modern development come at a stiff price for a people still steeped in traditional mores and conservative mindsets?
