And when we see what is happening when an entire people are denied their human rights and dignity, does it make us reflect on how we uphold the same rights for ourselves and everyone around us, asks the writer.

A vital lesson from the Israel-Palestine conflict is that we need to be careful, even in our own country, how we speak about other human beings.

There are more good people than bad in this world. But why do some people make it difficult for those who want to do good?

Most Malaysians want to be able to forget all of the noise and negativity and simply be happy, even if only temporarily, says the writer.

Often, pandering to others instead of standing up for our principles will only give our opponents more ammunition to take us down, says the writer.

On the one hand, we celebrate children, encourage people to have lots of them. Yet we want to discriminate between them and their less lucky peers, especially those who had no say on where and how they were born.

What we need to do to fight it is to cherish our beautiful majmuk country, where every single one of us, all perfectly clear-minded, makes it so.

Suddenly, vintage styles of kebaya and baju kurung in all sorts of fabrics are the rage this Hari Raya.

Given how unrestrained so many people have been lately, Ramadan could not have come at a better time, says the writer.

Maybe the best thing that this government can do is to round up the most close-minded people that we have and give them a free trip to the places that they think we should emulate, says the writer.

We need to change how we think of others and ourselves if we want to compete with the larger world.

The columnist hopes the new government will focus on solving the country’s environmental issues.