BY: CHRISTOPHER FERNANDEZ

Is it ironic that this year’s independence or Merdeka theme is on unity and there is a unity government in power because there appears to be no unity but a multiplicity of systems in action right now.

Malaysia is a country governed by a unity government but the states and the east of the country are all at loggerheads with each other and with the federal government which means that the nation is actually fractured and factionalized.

In perhaps another irony the theme of this year’s Merdeka is on “unity” but four states want to have their own theme under the opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN) banner while Sabah and Sarawak have their own ideas on unity.

The nation of Malaysia is in disarray and it is really the poorer states which are in the hands of the opposition that are at the losing end while the states of Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Johor prosper.

It is largely the west coast that is prosperous and this is because they have set up businesses and industries, they have inculcated work ethics and they refrain from playing politics and only want to get on with life.

It is however the Malay majority states that play the politics of survival or resort to Islamic religiosity when their economy is waning and these are precisely the reasons for them suffering want, their inability to get down to working out issues.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher