By Boo Cheng Hau

Renowned local commentator Wong Chin Huat wrote in a recent Facebook post: The commotion within and without the country at this moment is an essential process for democratic progress. This isn't a bad thing if we look at it from a different perspective.

From the perspectives of West Malaysians, having been independent for 63 years, we are now slowly moving into the league of a developed country. While our democratic system is not perfect, at least we have witnessed a half-successful change of federal administration, giving us more hope for more complete and effective changes of governments in the future. While our democracy is yet to blossom in full, we have nevertheless savored a hint of spring dew!

Even as we in West Malaysia have been independent for 63 years, in no way should we neglect the views of East Malaysians towards the nation-building of Malaysia.

To East Malaysians, Sarawak and Sabah joined to form the federation with Malaya as equal partners after their independence in 1963. In more recent years, these two East Malaysian states have witnessed increasingly powerful calls urging the federal government to respect the Malaysia Agreement 1963 to accord them broader autonomy.

We should hearken to the calls of our East Malaysian compatriots with an open heart, or we may see weakening cohesiveness in these two states against the backdrop of political turmoil over here in West Malaysia. This could be blamed on the Malay-Muslim supremacy epitomized by Umno-PAS-PPBM triumvirate.

Even though there is so much they are unhappy with "Malaya", East Malaysia's political parties have for so many years overwhelmingly supported BN's and now, PN's central governments, allowing the Malay supremacists to continue helming the nation at Putrajaya.

In the 2018 general elections, Parti Warisan Sabah not only won the state administration in collaboration with national multiracial parties PKR and DAP, but also played a pivotal role in capturing Putrajaya.

Although it is a veritable reality that Malay-Muslim society remains always a dominant force in the country, they must also learn to accommodate other ethnic communities and listen to the voices of the people in East Malaysia. This will help boost national unity and take us to the ranks of developed nations.

The biggest concern in our national solidarity lies with monoracial nationalism, in particular the Malay-Muslim supremacy founded on the nation's largest ethnic community, that allows a single ethnic race to dictate all major economic, cultural and educational policies for all Malaysians in a way that has directly created a clash of interests with the minority groups.

How do we expect Malaysians to stay united if we are perpetually divided over our cultural, religious and territorial differences? Take the culture of corruption for instance, some have even claimed that a political leader who embraces a specific religious faith can be forgiven for the corruption scandals he has been involved in!

The nation will only see the real power for change if we have a farsighted citizenry armed with strong civic awareness and a mighty desire for change. Not a handful of selfish politicians.

After being independent for 63 years now, the biggest stumbling block to our quest for a developed nation status is our excessive tolerance towards corruption and our blind worship of individual leaders. It is therefore not surprising that even though a certain ex-leader is facing so many corruption charges, he remains widely popular among people in a certain segment of our society.

By doing so, we are actually condoning corruption and trying to convince others that corruption is nothing shameful at all.

And because of our attitude, we have elected this kind of corrupt leaders. Our attitude will decide what kind of future we as a nation will have.

The only thing I can say on the nation's 63rd birthday is this same old thing people have kept saying over and again: each and every one of us is responsible for our country's fate.

(Boo Cheng Hau is former assemblyman for Skudai.)