Will post this comment at Tun Mahathir’s blog later:

Dear Tun Dr Mahathir,

Please allow me to elaborate on one of the human basic attribute: Empathy

 

Empathy: The ability to walk in someone else's shoes; the recognition that someone else's experience has value too and feels the pains for others in distress. Most of us practice this without a second thought. If we see someone suffering or struggling, we don't stand in judgment. We reach out to help because it is our human compassionate nature. It is not a hard concept to grasp. It's what we do naturally, to love each other and look out for one another as we are all God’s creation.

 

Unfortunately history had told us self-serving evil politicians were able to use race, religion, sectarianism and supremacy ideology to turn us against each other or them by fanning hatred, enmity and hostility towards other groups to the point of withdrawing empathy from members of the other groups, limiting their concern and compassion only to their fellows. Members project their own psychological flaws and their own personal failings onto another group; this is where the blame game started and with lack of empathy for others, anarchy and wars were inevitable.

 

In today's political landscape, years of political greed, lust, intolerance and “they against us” had robbed us of our compassionate nature to those considered as other groups. Group identity was created and in order to further strengthen their sense of identity, members of a group developed an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, had the rights to rule over others, that greed is good, and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn't matter what happens to everyone else. Right now, we are seeing what happens when we stop demanding empathy of one another and witnessing first-hand what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain.

 

Political leaders are now conveniently labeling fellow citizens who do not share with their group identity/ideology as enemies of the state, enemies of the faith and enemies of the people. We watch in horror those rogue politicians, those charged and those convicted of corruption are still free to lead and free to fan the flames of hatred, division and blame game. What message are we sending to our children and grandchildren that corruption is acceptable, that greed is good, that winning is everything, that even if you lose you still can win because “Cash is King”, that everyone can be bought over as long as the price is high enough and as long as you belong to the privileged group you can do anything, even going against the law in full day-light like our “Malu Apa Bossku”.

 

Malaysians now need to dig deep into our diversity root, the diversity that once brought us together and made Malaysia a great country to live in and fought for. We can do so again, diversity when correctly embraced and confidently applied and allowed to take its natural and inexorable course, need not destroy but it does point to a future that can lead us to expand rather than to implode, strengthen rather than weaken, unity rather than group identification, more colourful rather than black and white, more resilient rather than fragile, more lovely rather than ugly and more lively, harmony, culturalistic, creative, productive, innovative, flair, variety, better performance and make a difference globally.

 

E PURIBUS UNUM: OUT OF MANY, ONE. Malaysians now need to search its soul and realize that out of our diversity and differences there are only ONE:  “US” the “MALAYSIAN”.

 

The truest form of empathy: not just feeling, but doing; when you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something not just for ourselves or our children, but for everyone, for all our children and for our planet Earth.

 

To my dear brothers and sisters in Sabah, you have another chance to elect your state government. This election is not just for Sabahan but for all Malaysian. So, let's fight with conviction. Let's fight with hope. Let's fight with confidence in ourselves, and a commitment to each other that we value our diversity, decency, fairness, justice and love. Let our hearts be filled by compassion, kindness, love and empathy towards each other for everyone is walking his or her own difficult path but at the end of the day we will and shall prevail. MALAYSIA this nation of ours will and shall rise up and live up to the true meaning as proclaimed by our Nation Founder Father Tunku Abdul Rahman at Independent Day and Malaysia Day: “forever a sovereign democratic and independent State founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people/ever seeking to defend and uphold peace and harmony among its people”

 

Years from now, this moment will have passed. And so were the many more battles that we have fought for the heart and soul of our Nation. We will look at the man in the mirror when we get up in the morning and ask him: Where were you when the stakes were so high? We will ask him, what was it like?

We will look into the eyes of man in the mirror.  We will tell him not just how we felt. We will tell him what we did:

We, a nation of multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-lingual and a sovereign democratic and independent State founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people/ever seeking to defend and uphold peace and harmony among its people, prevailed. E PURIBUS UNUM: OUT OF MANY, ONE.

 

Let’s celebrate who we are!

Let’s celebrate what make us unique!

Let’s celebrate humanity’s diversity by appreciating our different cultures, ethnicity, religions and linguistic!

I wish all Malaysians, “Selamat Hari Merdeka and Selamat Hari Malaysia.” Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the holidays.

 

Thank you

 

Yours truly,

SS LEE

PS: Man in the Mirror

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=man+in+the+mirror