Malaysia's Future & The Half Glass Metaphor

If you ask the typical Malaysian on the street today to describe his/her feelings about the future of the country in terms of the half-empty/half full glass metaphor, what do you think would be the most common response?

One online news article seem to capture the mood of the public by suggesting that the current political turmoil has badly affected our sense of confidence as a nation. Perhaps we need to win a regional sports tournament like the way the Spainish were united by the European Cup victory.

The truth is that Malaysia did win a victory that was greater than any sports event. And that was the resurgence of confidence in the power of the ballot box to decide our country's future at the 12th GE on 8th March 2008.

Rather than asking whether the glass is half empty or half full, the important question is whether we wish to keep the same old water in the glass or throw it out to replace with clean water. All the revelations that we see are like the soil that is stirred at the bottom of the glass, clouding everything. Is it still clean enough to drink or should we wait for the dust to settle?

Much depends on the current state of politicking among the leaders from both sides of the House. When will the politicians start to discuss and intellectually debate on real policy issues gripping the world today rather than slinging mud on each others characters and reputations?

The lack of intellectual honesty in dealing with today's problems cannot be solved by either silence, noise or dramatic acts of political change. The PM should regain the people's trust in the government by showing them the trade-off between short-term policy effects and long-term policy gains.

Datuk Anwar Ibrahim seems to have a good view of the long-term prosperity of the country with the right recipe of policies but he fell short of the short-term policy intitiatives by promising lower fuel prices. That is probably better than the flip flop situation of BN leaders having to act each day to make short-term gains for the sake of their political survival.