LET'S be honest: Malaysians have a lot of ideas.

Most of the ideas or at least, spontaneity of generating ideas among the people may surprise us. Take a moment to listen, you will be hearing ideas.

However, what remains a question is, what happened to those ideas?

For many years we have been spanning with the same rhetorical loudness of ‘transformation’, ‘reform’ and ‘change’ for better Malaysia.

In reality, many of our troubles have resulted from the most common word in Malaysian politics: interference.

Despite the magnitude of the word ‘interfere’, which carries some sort of negative connotation, it’s not all dark.

Recall how, although we stumbled upon many hiccups during the pandemic, the past two years we have seen how day-to-day living has evolved and accelerated dramatically.

On the bright side of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were many layers of ‘intervention’ involved in the decision-making process across numerous sectors and businesses.

For an institution that works directly with the least fortunate 'rakyat', witnessing human struggle and suffering is often part of the job.

Nevertheless, ideas from ordinary Malaysians, business communities and civil society organisations to improve and restore confidence and hope within the communities are second to none and should be praised.

We need more of that.

Let’s embrace simple and 'dumb' ideas, as many as we can. To do that, one needs to understand the magnitude of ‘unseen obstacles’.

Some might argue, ‘dinosaurs’ in our political system and administration are far from extinct.

As we have seen during the crucial and trying times like floods and other natural disasters, that is not necessarily the case.

The power of togetherness among the people have gone far beyond the inability to assert control by the politicians.

Let the ‘unseen obstacles’ be diluted by ‘stubbornness’ of the people to stay focused with their clarity of consciences.      

Also, let’s embrace skepticism. The wave of discontent is not just exclusive to Malaysia. It’s happening throughout the world.

In our case, most of them are the result of fatigue; political fatigue and discontent that need not be discussed further.

Everyone knows the cause, everyone is sharing the same feeling, generally.  Let’s stop being embarrassed by the bitterness of the dynamic and face the music, together.  

We need ideas to be turned into actions. We Malaysians, need to be inspired again.

We sometimes need to rebuild trust; trust in each other to achieve the impossible, of which we long took for granted.

Let’s take a minute to listen to the different ‘tone’ of ideas. That can only happen when our hearts could and would listen to new conversations.


* Ashwad Ismail is Astro AWANI's Editor-in-Chief