Selamat Hari Deepavali to all of you..

To all my Hindu friends, I would like to wish all of you a very happy belated Deepavali.

I know, I know, I’m 4 days late and I am lousy at getting my greeting out on time. Anyway, it’s the thought that counts.

May your family & home light up with great happiness during this special celebration of light.

Em, to my regular newspaper agent whom my wife and I buy our daily newspaper from, thank you very much for the Deepavali cookies that comes with the Tuesday edition news (Yummy).

I will definitely get him something during this Christmas for a little THANK YOU gesture.

My personal hope is that we as Malaysians will continue to learn not just tolerate but to learn to accept one another more and see beyond the superficial differences. The world is changing and getting much smaller, so it would be great when all of us learn to depend on each other to grow as one nation.

That's right, good bye to you too....

Malaysia's 5th Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will be stepping down in March 2009 after a humiliating election that saw the ruling party of 51 years losing their 2/3 majority in the recent 13th General Election.

Since the ruling party, the Barisan National only garner less than 50% of the total vote casted, I guess it will be a mixed feeling among Malaysians. I for one had placed high hope he will and can improve all malaysians regardless of race and religion after he took over from Dr. Mahathir Mohamad 5 years ago but he failed to deliver what he promised to do.

With the new era of internet news and blogging activities among the common people, Badawi failed to impress us any further via government owned media machineries and fancy government tagline minus the actual implementation of his promises.

From the government controlled media who portrayed him as Mr. Nice Guy, he was eventually labelled as Sleepy Dollah and other degorative names by bloggers and online commentors...sad but that's life in the fast and ever changing internet world.

As long as special rights of certain people are favored or protected, the people of Malaysia will no longer stand by and close an eye just to let things pass. People will expect prompt action against corruption, against lies and against broken promises. All we want is to be equal as Malaysians, not to be labeled as "Squatters" by some irresponsible politicians who think some races tho born and breed in Malaysia should not be entitled equal rights.

For more balance reading, it will be intresting to subscribe or log on to Malaysiakini, Lim Kit Siang's blog or any other alternative online news.

In five more months before Badawi steps down, will be remembered as a decent man or fail totally to deliver what he promised to do in his final hours as our prime minister? Your guess is as good as mine...