There
is a story about a teacher and a troublesome student. The student is so
negative that he was very rude, paid no attention in class, anti-social and
failed all his subjects. Nobody like him, include this teacher who is his counselor.
She just started to teach him.
One day, while reading over his background file,
the teacher was so surprised. Few years back, this student is top student in school
with excellent remarks by his previous teachers. Suddenly, since two years ago,
he changed dramatically towards bad due to his family mishap. His parent both passed
away at an accident and that was a great shock to him. These made the teacher felt
so guilty and decided to help out this student.
Since
that day, the teacher showed care and attention towards this “troublesome”
student. Perhaps feel touched, the students began to see positive changes day
by day. Finally, he got entry into a prestige university for medical course. Despite
his achievement, he always feels gratitude to that teacher and treating her as
his mother. Therefore, when he gets married, he asked the teacher to be his witness
and take the place as his mother in the wedding dinner.
In
his wedding day, he told the teacher, “Without you, I will not be like today.
You give me hope. You have changed my life. Thank you.”
Tearfully,
the teacher reply, “No. It is you that change my life and give me hope. You
changed my view on people, education and many things. It is me that has to say
thank you.
Anwar
Ibrahim, the leader of Pakatan Rakyat has shared a similar story. He was
approached by some rakyat (citizens),
thanking him and his Pakatan Rakyat for giving them hope. Anwar replied that it
is he and his Pakatan members have to thank them for giving them hope to hang
on in their struggle for change.
Perhaps,
these two stories remind the rakyat,
be it eligible voter or not, Pakatan is the people’s hope while the people is
the hope for Pakatan. The people are denied of their choice and voices in Barisan
Nasional’s (BN) hegemony in politic, economy and other aspect of life. No other
party or individual they can hope for to topple BN except Anwar and his Pakatan
coalition. Thus, Pakatan gives them hope for change.
On
the other hand, Pakatan Rakyat needs the people’s support and votes. Without that,
the Pakatan coalition would have been long wiped out by the strong-arm and dirty
tactics of BN. It is the people that won them the moral victory in previous 12th
General Election (GE). It is the people’s fantastic responses to their ceramah, generosity towards their donation
drive and helping hands in their social media campaign that give them hope.
To
sum it up in Malay language, “Pakatan harapan Rakyat” and at the same time, “Rakyat
haparan Pakatan”.
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[As rakyat, there is a responsibility to come out to vote. In addition, as an academician in a country where mass media are being controlled and misused by a corrupted regime, I believe we have an additional responsibility to educate our fellow rakyat to be an enlightened and knowledgeable voter. Thus, this will be the first of a series of the 13th General Election (GE13) article to all Malaysian as well as the people of this world]
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