AUGUST 20 — A scared teenager is now hiding from angry Malaysians for ‘liking’ Israel on Facebook.

I am not sure this was what the founders of the Internet hoped for us. What is certain is that we have become a nation of tattle-tales. And “nation most likely to make world headlines for stupid reasons.”

“Oh look that car has a McDonald’s sticker! Let’s smash the windows! Never mind that it won’t make a difference in Gaza but we’ll feel like we’re doing something!”

Why are we doing these stupid things? Now I would like to just blame stupidity but it is a global disease.

I think the word for this problem is “agency.” Not that I mean we need more agencies to save us from ourselves, but the general feeling among Malaysians of powerlessness; of being without agency to affect change.

When you feel as though you are unable to change what matters most to you, you end up doing things for the sake of feeling you are doing something.

Malaysians are a funny lot. They want to continue to live a life of ease, of cheap food, of bribeable police but with inflation and income inequality, the world will change despite them.

Five decades of coddling. Fifty years of being told that we are unable to function without government largesse, of confusing racism for affirmative action, of justice being only a melodramatic political party.

2020 is a pipe dream. That is what it is and shall be. But what is more important is to dismantle the things that hold us back — the ridiculous need for homogeneity, the continuous suppression of individual freedoms in the false belief that they undermine communities.

Separate, yet in harmony. Different, and still equal. Those are what communities could be and should be. But this is not our reality.

“Tiada kerja lain ke?” (Don’t you have anything better to do?) should really be our new national slogan.

Ask that to the religious officers having too much fun playing Peeping Tom.

Ask that to the teachers monitoring their students’ Facebook activity.

Ask that to the people boycotting McDonalds (when the only people they’re hurting are Malaysians and not Israel).

Ask yourself. Ask ourselves. What could we really be doing with our time? What really does serve our nation?

A boycott demonstration in front of a McDonald’s outlet. — Picture courtesy of www.blogammar.com

I think we don’t have the right answers because for too long, we have been asking the wrong question.

And that question is “What’s in it for me?”

It’s an important question. But it shouldn’t be the only question. And we have to stop electing those who only ask that question, all the time.

I think it’s time we stop doing things for the sake of doing something and learn what it is to do the right thing.

Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with Ronald McDonald.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.