LETTER | Yet another “new” year has dawned. Will we Malaysians make it a sterling performance as the next twelve months tick by?

Ordinary citizens have registered and shared among friends and family a New Year greeting of hope against the tumbling odds that inundated us in 2024.

Will politicians continue to brew strange and suffocating toxins of political warfare in the months ahead?

Businesses have protected their determination to go beyond covering costs (or profiteering as we all know too well), leaving consumers without choice in 2024 to struggle under the spiralling costs from a cup of tea, breakfast at roadside stalls, or in restaurants to servicing mortgages, securing education for our children, and seeking vital healthcare.

Healthcare costs and quality are silently beating us to death. Will we see a transformational remedy in 2025?

Even Petronas is supposedly downsizing in the name of excellence - after decades of minting and cashing in from the oil and gas economy that went into building a “progressive” nation. 

So how will the Madani promises be made a reality, pray tell us. 

Education seemingly cannot be reset with speed because of decades of decadence, so we are told by our political shepherds of the federal coalition government.

Corrupt business deals have become the pillars of guaranteed strength for greedy grabbers. 

Left with precarious hope - as policymakers will very likely take cover under a “global economic” excuse - citizens are turning to God for remedy. 

But then again, religious extremism - in thought and sowings, is widely gaining traction. 

Meanwhile, a huge albatross is hanging in the air, given the convoluted trajectories over the pardon or house arrest of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, the U-turns in criminal cases, etc - leaving the new year in a murky pool of speculations, allegations and the undermining of hope.

To shout back “Let’s not be pessimistic” might give some punch to our hopes in 2025.

But it calls for “tutup satu mata” because political feuds and disunity were in overdrive mode as 2024 drew to a close. 

All eyes and fingers were pointed at Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as we entered yet another year under his leadership.

But our prime minister keeps telling us, loud and clear, that his team needs more time to put us all on track to being a united, tolerant, accepting, progressively hopeful multiracial, multireligious, multicultural nation.

Indeed, if we are going to celebrate a meteoric year come Dec 31, 2025, it calls for all hands to clap together. One hand blaming the other is a fool’s game. 

In summary, the government of the day under Anwar’s leadership together with every politician on both sides of the divide must carry the yoke to liberate the nation or plunge us all into chaos. 

Yes, we need two hands to clap.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.