COMMENT | The problem with Malaysia is the rakyat. We don't question enough. We rarely scrutinise. We are happy to accept politicians' answers at face value.

We choose sides and then fail to see the wrong committed by our side. When someone does question an irregularity, we pick on that person, instead of seeing what he or she is trying to uncover.

We are beholden to our leaders and neglect to see the harm they are doing. We allow the politicians to bully us and we prefer to let them think for us.

Why blame the politicians? We let them into our homes, our minds and our personal space. We fail to control them and they will manipulate us again and again, until we learn to tame them.

The whole world is moving forward, but Malaysia is regressing towards the 6th Century. Elsewhere, the PRC Chinese want to be the first to land on Mars, the Indians are not far behind them, but in Malaysia, many Malays are happy to crawl back under their tempurung (coconut shells).

Young Malays are cowed into silence and the inability to express an opinion is not confined to the Malays. Many non-Malays have been conditioned to accept that they are second best. This is wrong, because it deprives them of their true potential and the nation, of the best minds...