Words to go by

Here's another scan from my Nationalism Module works. This time, each group, speaking their own mother tongue, had to write a personal slogan. The Malay-speaking group had their own, the Chinese-speakers had their own, the Ibans had their own, Nur (the Bidayuh girl) had her own, and I was practically put to shame for not being able to speak in my mother tongue.

I explained the situation : it's pretty much the situation for most urban dwellers. Most of us pick Malay or English as our first language (the latter being the more preferred choice), and there we go. I have an added explanation : I am of mixed blood. I understand both my native tongues but whatever I know isn't enough to carry out a basic conversation. Heck, I'm a third culture kid and I didn't know how to express it.

So after much hesitation, Cikgu Rahmat told me, "Okay, here's the pitch - and believe me, this'd be nice - why not write your personal slogan in French ? The language you use to write your journal, right ?"

The whole class fell silent. And I was stunned.

But anyway, I finally came up with something.

Translation :

BRAVERY,
TRANSPARENCY,
COMMON SENSE.

And it's pretty obvious why I did this : the people who are at the helm of our country evidently lack these qualities. They're brave in the negative sense of the word (this seems very apparent in the not-so-recent political turmoil). Only a select few are transparent, and even fewer have the ability to think for the common good. As Descartes puts it, le sens commun n'est pas si commun - "common sense isn't so common."