Bonda senyum riang (Mother smiled with joy)

Menerima bahtera merdeka. .. (In receiving the ship of Independence)

- from an old song

With apologies to the late American social critic Gore Vidal, my piece this week was conceived over the weekend at a speech at Harvard University, during which I spoke about the "ambiguities of freedom" in post-March 8 revolution in Malaysia.

The bahtera /jong/ship that was supposed to bring this country and its people to this mythical magical and elusive place called ‘Vision 2020' is going down fast and will perhaps sink by May 13, 2008 - 50 years after it was built with confidence and with a new hope for a multi-cultural Malaysia that promised justice for all.