New Malay dilemma: breaking out of the rights cocoon
I went “balik kampung” recently, as part of my tour of the north, which included Langkawi and south Thailand, driving 1,300km with a spine constantly complaining about the stress and strain.
It’s always good to “balik kampung”, even if fewer people or things remain from my childhood days, on account of human mortality and possibly human greed.
The kampung food is still there, albeit without the quality of old that my increasingly-suspect mind recalls. Wasn’t the food always great in the old days, and didn’t they use to give it away for free? Anybody remember that?
Many old things and people are gone. Some remain, while many new things, and people too, have taken over.
I increasingly notice how depressing life is for many in my kampung. I hear a lot of stories of dysfunctional families, many wrecked by drugs and other issues of economics and mental health. Broken homes, men in prison, children fending for themselves.
I grew up in poverty, but we didn’t have this…
