(This was first published on The Malaysian Insider on July 30, 2009. It was just five month after the Perak government fell in the most audacious manner and speculations were made about Selangor following the same path. The Pakatan governments had just hit a year running their states with varying successes. It carries similar themes to my column today in The Malaysian Insider, that Umno does not want participatory democracy. It wants all of us to butt out while it runs things, and thank them at the end, irrespective the outcome)
JULY 30 (2009) — Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. Bertoldt Brecht’s advice from the middle of the last century strikes a chord with Malaysia — a nation struggling to navigate its way recently through a myriad of political stalemates.
Sitting in a restaurant in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, on a Tuesday evening, you get a certain perspective, a certain know of how things operate, even if it is eclectic thinking. That and all the colourful characters walking in and out of the restaurant.
The “situasi” then. Read the rest of this entry
