Santa to the rescue

 

As published in The Sun

 

Dear Santa,

 

Not so long ago this column published my letter to the prime minister. In the letter I appealed for serious efforts by the government to strengthen relations between the various religious communities in Malaysia.

 

Additionally, I welcomed the prime minister’s enthusiasm in wanting to stimulate an intellectual renaissance through all-round quality education.

 

Nevertheless, I also called for greater distance in Malaysia’s relationship with war-mongering governments because I thought that would be the right thing to do since we are after all a principled, pro-peace Hadhari society.

 

On this topic, Santa, I suggested for Malaysia to hold back on Free Trade Agreement talks with the United States – a call merely echoing Latin American governments that have already testified to inequality in such pacts with the particular warmongering state. I also suggested that we not allow any more warships destined to participate in the Middle East violence to dock at our shores.

 

Since that letter however, inter-religious and inter-racial relations have severely deteriorated in Malaysia.

 

What’s more, our leaders do not seem earnest in handling the problem since many appear to be getting away with seditious crimes like spreading horrifying fitnah (lies) through text messages and promoting xenophobia on television.

 

We have also since seen our university standings plunge in the world rankings, although I cannot quite remember if we blamed our underperformance on Western bias and conspiracies again this time around.

 

And despite a lot of talk about bina insan (character development) and providing all-round quality education to confront Malaysia’s brain drain problem, nothing has been done to liberalise the Universities and University Colleges Act.

 

You might also be interested to know, Santa, the government has also pursued further talks with the United States for a Free Trade Agreement and allowed yet another military aircraft carrier to dock in Malaysia while on its way to the Persian Gulf.

 

On top of that, we welcomed and gave special treatment to John Howard and Condi Rice at an international conference we hosted here in Kuala Lumpur. The latter was even furnished with a piano and invited to play a few tunes for our distinguished guests.

 

That said, I have no choice but to conclude that the prime minister either did not read my letter, or worse, does not love me enough and has therefore done the opposite for all my appeals.

 

Dejected, I have resorted to writing to you instead – an old, bearded, seasons-greetings, fictitious, pink celebrity. I therefore seek your good offices, dear Santa, to help with the above issues.

 

Maybe you can help restore trust between religious communities in Malaysia. While you’re at it, please also advise the government against allowing foreign military vehicles to park here, especially those carrying nuclear warheads.

 

It may be too much to ask for you to free Palestine and eradicate poverty in Africa too, but please at least try granting the following for 2007:

 

1. A new chief for the Elections Commission and the state of Selangor.

 

2. Live telecasts of parliament proceedings. This will allow Malaysians to see for themselves the rude and immature behaviour of their elected representatives. Contrary to what the deputy prime minister recently said, live pictures do not give distorted impressions. Malaysians will also have the opportunity to see how the House Speaker easily blocks hot issues from being debated by dismissing the issues as “not urgent”.

 

3. Independent media. Let it not be the case that the only newspapers left not merged or gobbled up by media conglomerates are the opposition newspapers.

 

4. More women in leadership positions. For many years now, public universities have reported higher numbers in female student enrolment compared to male. Recent figures actually show an average minimum of 60% for female student enrolment in almost every public university.

 

This suggests there are more qualified women in the job market compared to men. It is only reasonable therefore for more women to be represented in leadership positions today, be it in business or politics.

 

5. One year’s supply of anti-nausea pills. Just something to help Malaysians get through the extra dose of propaganda expected to flood the media as the general election approaches.

 

I am counting on you, Santa! Cheers.