The Year of Wishful Thinking

It is 2014, and we are drowning in a sea of pettiness. You’ve probably heard about stern decrees and sterner defiance in the face of a ruling on non-Muslims using the word “Allah”, and the raid on the Bible Society of Malaysia. Reading about these things is like being locked naked in a room with a mosquito – between the biting or the buzzing, irritation is inevitable. 

Quite apart from the overbearing sense of unfairness and frustration, there’s the certainty that it is going to dominate discourse. We’re not going to discuss government policy and the possibility of progress. We’re going to spend time wallowing in the detritus of these squabbles. It is the Malaysian way.