You know the kind.
Politicians weave a lattice of rhetoric to pull you in, and once entrapped, you find yourself in a web of belief spun by a Napolean, an underground man, a political fantasy.
Worse are the traditions that a community or group of people might wish to preserve, even though the fiction of such traditions bite at the reality of a people divorced from events that took place many years ago. I suppose some lessons are instructive, but not all historical legacies have an equal efficacy or validity. Cue the PM’s exhortation, in response to Keng Yaik’s speech.
“It is a formula bequeathed to us, which we must treasure and protect, so that it may continue to bring us success,” he said when launching the Merdeka Month Celebration and Fly the Jalur Gemilang Campaign 2005 here Wednesday night before a crowd estimated at 300,000.
Abdullah said what had begun as an agreement between the leaders of the independence movement was now a formula that protected the country against foreign encroachment.
“Bequethed”, “must treasure and protect”, these are the words refered to the so-called Social Contract amongst ethnicities in Malaysia, because it has, it is implied, brought us success. The question on my mind is, what kind of success, and success for whom?
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