A BETTER
YEAR AHEAD
As
we are almost reaching the end of 2012, how many of us have wondered or
pondered what will be the year ahead like? The answer depends very much on us
and how we collectively make it. This is because our beliefs determine our
actions.
We believe the worst is over and we are heading to a much better year ahead if
we persistently take collectively conscious actions to press on to a new record
height level. In fact, we can make good use of the multi-media and social media
to spread the truths, despite the fact the truths are spreading relative slower
than the bad news. However, these will not deter us as we can still turn these
into wise moves by not only providing its warranted attention but also
following up with actions that demand accountability and responsibility
proportionately and accordingly to the rule of law throughout the globe. These
will create true transparency, integrity and accountability on the substance
and not form.
''How long you will go on killing innocent people...if one Malala will be
killed, thousands will replace her. One Benazir was killed, thousands replaced
her..'' Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the 24 year-old son of Benazir Bhutto and
the heir to one of the most powerful, famous, and controversial
political dynasties in the world, made his formal lethal world of
Pakistani politics at an emotional rally in a small village which is his
family's ancestral home in the south of the country. This is a good
illustration between the "two powers" in his homeland, "those on
the right path and those on the path of lies."
Today, the Indian news channel NDTV greeted news of the death of the gang-rape
victim, on a bus that sickened India, in the early hours of Saturday in a
Singapore hospital with the banner headline "RIP: India's Daughter",
in another reflection of how her plight had moved the nation. After
spending her evening watching "Life of Pi" in a New Delhi mall, the
23-year-old student and her male companion were looking for a quick lift home
when a bus with tinted windows pulled over.
The
pair was then subjected to a catalogue of violence and sexual depravity which
has evoked comparisons with Anthony Burgess's novel "A Clockwork Orange"
and brought simmering anger over the plight of women to the boil across India.
Hope this anger will ultimate transformed into consciousness and not hatred.
Ever since she was attacked on the night of December 16, the country's leaders
have lined up to offer their prayers and condemn the attack as well as paying
for her treatment in Singapore.
After
getting into an argument with the woman's male companion, the group are then
alleged to have lashed out at the pair before taking turns to rape the woman in
the back of the bus while driving around Delhi for some 45 minutes.
They
also sexually assaulted the woman with a rusting metal bar, leaving her with
severe intestinal injuries, before hurling her out of the vehicle.
The
bus would have had to cross numerous police checkpoints at that time of night
but at no stage was the vehicle pulled over by officers.
After
news of the attack emerged, small-scale protests quickly swelled and were then
repeated across the country -- fuelled in part by anger at the police's use of
tear gas and water cannon.
The
Indian government has set up a commission of inquiry to investigate what
mistakes were made on the night of the attack and in its aftermath.
But
in an address to chief ministers from the country's states who gathered in New
Delhi on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged that it was far
from an isolated event.
"We
must reflect on this problem, which occurs in all states and regions. It
requires greater attention by the central government and states," he said.
Gang-rapes
happen on such a regular basis that they are rarely reported in the Indian
press although the attack in Delhi has led papers to shine a rare spotlight on
such attacks.
On
Thursday night, it emerged that a 17-year-old girl had committed suicide after
police allegedly tried to persuade her to drop a complaint of gang-rape and
instead either accept a cash settlement or even marry one of her attackers.
After
quoting from the infamous gang-rape scene in Burgess's novel, a columnist for
The Hindu wrote this week that "few Indians will need a dictionary of the
teenage slang Burgess invented to grasp the horror of this passage".
"For
progress to be made, we must begin by acknowledging this one fact: the problem
isn't the police, the courts or the government. The problem is us,"
wrote Praveen Swami.
Trust
the above two incidents have demonstrated the points that we must take
accountabilities of our own actions and not to blame others. We need to make
changes should we truly want to make progress. Change is the solution.
We
can't expect progress should we stay status quo or follow the same approach we deal
with the things like in the past.
Therefore,
it is crystal clear as to how we determine the better year ahead is through
changes. Then those lives of those kind and innocent ones being killed are not
lost in vain.
Let
us put the old chapter, of those innocent lives being killed, to an end and
move forward to a happy, harmonious and healthy year ahead. So, let
us embrace change and make the year ahead better.
