One Small Step...

Technorati tags: Politics, Permatang Pauh, Anwar Ibrahim, Hope

Flashback, July 21st, 1969. On that day, history was made. Man, for the very first time, set foot on the surface of an extra-terrestial body - the Moon.

It was also on that day, a cliché was born:

"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind"
Neil Armstrong (via Quotations Book)

Flash-forward 39 years later, give or take.

You could also say that August 26th, 2008 was "one small step"... Maybe not for mankind, per se. But definitely for this nation we love called Malaysia.

(courtesy of Mob1900)

Congratulations, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
(baby steps towards a better Malaysia, and more, in the full post)

And what's significant about the one small step on August 26th?

Well, for one thing, it reinforces Walski's belief that communitarian politics is a dying paradigm. At least, race-communitarian politics. As for the demise of religious-communitarian politics, we still got some baby steps to overcome yet. But Walski's confident we'll get there at some point.

Another thing is the credibility of Barisan Nasional that's eroding faster than what global warming is doing to Antartica. Even the appearance of The Father, Son-in-Law, and possibly whole-y busloads of ghostly voters, couldn't save the day for BN. Okay, perhaps that was pretty bad, cliché-wise. For which, however, Walski offers no apologies.

And finally, no amount of swearing, underhanded dirty election tricks, or subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) monetary enducements could deter the voice of the people.

On a slightly lighter note, the Mrs forwarded this humorous SMS to Walski earlier in the day:

The future of Japan is in its technology

The future of China is in its economy

The future of Malaysia is in Saiful's ass...

Well, Walski would beg to differ. The future is in our own asses hands. And what the pivotal hands of Permatang Pauh collectively did on August 26th, may just have tilted our nation towards a better future. Saiful's ass notwithstanding.

But the journey is far from over. We now wait to see where that one small step leads us to...

Ah well... for all it's worth, at least there's something positive for Walski to feel about come August 31st... them flags may yet find the inspiration to right-side-up themselves...