IT is not an overstatement to say that the past week has been traumatic and exciting for a great number of Malaysians.
Some people feel like they have won the World Cup. Some like they have been hit by a tsunami.
Some believe storms are to come. Some hope the thunderclouds have already fled.
Some think politicians are no longer listening to them. Some believe the politicians finally understand what the people want.
Many are optimistic and calm. Many others are pessimistic and anxious.
But in the whole gamut of emotions, people's aspirations must remain alive, for they make life meaningful.
In “the supreme summit of all literature”, 'The Brothers Karamazov', which I revisit again and again, the Grand Inquisitor tells his great prisoner: "The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” In divine and prosaic matters.
Thus we all claim to have an aspiration to love and to work, to continue to live peaceably in freedom, to have justice and integrity in our hearts and in the land, and to have inclusivity as the bedrock of the administration’s policies. For sure, there must be many more.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s address to the restless nation on Monday night may assuage some concerns about the fate of these precious aspirations. But strong deeds must match strong words.
When people understand and see that their hopes are turning into reality, and not merely into mirages, then they cannot lie to themselves about the state of the nation.
Again, from Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, this time from the gentle Father Zossima: "The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love."
Hopefully, lying to ourselves and loss of aspirations will not be our fate. Both as an individual and as a people.
Otherwise, the traumatic and exciting week will be just one of many to face us in the time to come.
God bless Malaysia.
The writer is NST production editor
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times