2oo8 - A New Year, A New Outlook

A new year.

It's time for us to let go of the disappointments, and to build on the many successes of 2007, during the upcoming year. Another year, another chance to improve on our previous endeavors. Personally I'm not the kind of resolution person, since resolutions, like promises, tend to be things which are "made to be broken". I just hope that this year things will improve for the better, for I am at the crossroads in my college life - it is second semester, and a strong motivation will help a lot in my final year in Business Law.

A new year also brings a potential new danger into our lives. The next general election in Malaysia is coming, and despite the many objections regarding the fairness of the election process in the country, it seems that it will go on as planned. One thing I very much dislike in my fellow Malaysians is that we tend to remember only things important to us, and forget the rest. In other words, we are edging slowly, but surely, to the path of selfishness, the path of "every man for himself", the path of unrivalled kiasusiti - that will more likely than not end up in grief. After all, a multiracial country cannot live with racial sentiments constantly being put out everyday - it unsettles people, whether they realise it or not, because these things chip away at a person's conscience slowly. But I am digressing.

To get back to the point, I am especially disappointed that people can get so caught up in their own pursuit of power, of wealth, and other materialistic pleasures that they leave behind empathy, compassion, and such towards their fellow man. There always seems to be an exaggerated outburst on certain issues dear to everyone's hearts, that then dies down almost immediately, without any form of protest, reminder, or anything of that kind. We have seen this with so many big, ambitious projects launched not only by our Government, but by companies, clubs, and bodies - we tend to overreach. It's especially sad when we then look back at the many things we didn't push to the end, and then regret. Especially sad.

The same perhaps could be said of our civic mindedness. Obviously the Government may make mistakes, they may really irresponsible in certain issues, but then how much blame can be put on them? The people should be civic minded too. Compare ourselves to the so called "morally deficient" Western world - how many P&Qs do we get when doing business (be it grocery shopping, or eating out etc), how common is it to see people donating to the poor, voluntarily cleaning up places and all? I'm sure there are a number of people who do this in Malaysia, but we all can certainly do better, in my opinion. The mentality that doing charity is non-beneficial to oneself unless if he uses it (e.g. advertising one's own credibility) is something that should be left behind with the moral textbooks in secondary school.

I am very much looking forward to the New Year, not only in education, in developments around the country, in research, in work, but most importantly, in life.

No offense meant to any of the parties mentioned in the article.

Have a happy new year, and all the best in your efforts over 2008!