'All through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, always.' - Mahatma Gandhi

Long before the stunning outcome of last year's election shock, Malaysian civil society has been embroiled in and simmering in sleaze and negative vibes.

The 'feel-good' mood of the ‘rakyat' has long since evaporated. In its place, there hangs a thick fog of resigned exasperation and seething anger increasingly directed at the current debilitating

establishment.

Sadly, our pliant administration (yes, including our subservient civil servants and the ingratiating if arrogant police who should rightfully be serving the ‘rakyat' and not simply the misguided whims and demands of the politicians) appears to remain stubbornly oblivious to the changing tide of popularity and the mounting legitimate demands of a politically-awakened ‘rakyat'.

As enlightened ‘rakyat', we refuse to kowtow anymore to more of the same -- the crass corruption and senseless power play for wanton personal gain. Enough is enough, we seem to say, if only this cry for justice and fair-play can be heard more resoundingly.

Our previously self-assured confidence has since been punctured by despondent daily takes of political trickery and rising crime rates. Our streets are becoming more and more unsafe. In the space of two consecutive days, two pregnant women had been killed by the senseless thuggery of snatch-thieves more brazen than ever before, while the police dawdle on partisan political corralling of activists and oppositionists.

And this sorry state of affairs has shown no signs of abating. We are still mired in political gridlock and parochial inaction to the point of undermining our vaunted position as one of the fastest growing economies of the world.

Perhaps, this is the result of too long an incumbency of the previous leadership -- 22 years of stuttering sometimes staggering achievements, but also creeping and crumbling encrustation of

ageing emasculated institutions, followed by another five years of political and administrative indecisive meandering. Malaysians appear to have dug deeper into the bottomless chasm of uncertainty and despair.

Political maneuvering appears to have become the sole and blinkered attention of our one-dimensional politicians, with the old guard stubbornly and tenaciously clinging on to whatever Machiavellian manoeuvres to stay in power; worse they are adopting the much-maligned and perverse Mugabean methods of usurping or grabbing power.

The police and the judiciary appear to have become instruments of the ruling elite, whose clinging to govern at all cost know no bounds.

As a Malaysian, I feel so let down, so ashamed that our political masters have blatantly forgotten their causes, their roles, their purported functions. They have let themselves be elevated to the

exalted status of gods or royals, who have no other concern except their own survival and their own selfish interests! There is not even that show of modicum for respecting the rakyat and their wishes - its all about staying and clinging on to power at all costs.

Can any one seriously respect the institutions and the current government any longer -- seeing that it continues to do as it pleases, and abuses its rule by law and diktats according to its own whims and fancies, but not according to legitimate people's interests?

Charging and arresting anyone who opposes them with all sorts of bullying Acts and laws cannot be the way to legitimise its faltering stranglehold on power. If anything, it hardens and alienates

the rakyat against them even more.

Perhaps this realisation is what's galling the ruling elite -- that it appears to be losing the popular support of the people day by day, despite it trying so very hard to 'please' an ever-growing number of disgruntled people -- every which way, the incumbent government appears to lose.

I sometimes wish we can turn back the clock, but we can't. So many of our Malaysians have awaken to the possibility of change so potent that we cannot now go back to our slumber of timorous compliance and swallowed pride and tongue-biting conscience.

We have progressed too far along our democratic space and journey that we cannot allow our momentum to weaken, from backsliding. We have to collectively nudge this along even if we are hampered by such roadblocks of inconvenience, we must remain steadfast to defeat the ancient regime of tottering misrule!

I wish upon a new era for Malaysia, a new dawn of a democratic, progressive and fair Malaysia -- one that every rakyat can be proud of. And not one where fair-minded citizens the world over

would snigger in derision at its tainted leaders, its crumbling institutions, its wanton corruption, its power crazy machinations, its total lack of moral credibility for us, the rakyat to believe in.

Alas, would my country be reborn?