nationalistic pride gone awry.

sometimes i wonder if my father joined the ministry of foreign affairs out of love for the country, and how much of that love played a part when he was performing his tasks that came with the job. do diplomats need to have some sort of attachment with their homeland to perform admirably? or is it all really a charade?

last night, the deputy prime minister came on terrestrial television and explained why the petrol prices have been hiked up. he was questioned by one of the bigwigs of the bernama press, as well as some other dude who wanted to butt in all the time (must be the attention seeker amongst the two). now, i like najib tun razak...he looks like a friendly kind of guy, with a pleasant demeanour, slightly chubby...the kind of man who'd lead your country who you'd go awwwwwwww for. however, i feel compelled to say that since the q&a session was pre-planned and pre-approved by the government, there was no excitement...no fireworks.

i'm not a professional political commentator. all i can say is that the interview wasn't fun to watch. there wasn't any excitement in it. then again, this is malaysian politics. where're the rogues? where's the fun? is my generation and the next going to look up at a bunch of stodgy, uppity, middle-aged malay men and wonder...where's the firebrand?

indeed we are. there's a very thin line betwen meritocracy and nepotism in the majority parties.

strike that. there's no such thing as a meritocracy.

but, despite all these obvious shortcomings, my father still hodged his life away for over 25 years. granted, he got a nifty title for his service, but still...could you really believe in this country so much?