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A: "The root cause is the mindset that paralyzes critical thinking."

Neil: "How do you figure that?"

A: "It is always comforting to just accept status quo especially when rocking the boat may disenfranchise oneself from the community. But then if the herd is beating down the wrong path, not doing so just adds to the end-result."

Neil: "So you're saying that uncritical acceptance of the end-result is what is really wrong."

A: "No, I am saying it's how you think about matters. Sure, some of the politicians are real scoundrels. But by and large, most are human beings who just fall into their own traps of minds locked to desires that can only be satisfied at some cost that will diminish the ability of the system to continuously sustain that satisfaction down the line."

Neil: "Zero-sum game?"

A: "I think they already know that but they have chosen to ignore it because it is always easier to grab an excuse, any excuse, for continuing policies that make one look good, even if it bleeds the nation and hurts others which one has resignedly accepted to be anti to one's cause."

Neil: "So how do you change mindset?"

A: "By showing the reactions. Vote for the opposition to reduce the incumbent's majority. It doesn't matter who, just whittle down the gap so that there will be more representation in that abbatoir which can present contrarian voice whenever inequitable or inept solutions are tabled. Boycott all pro-government programmes unless you can personally benefit from it, and i stress 'personally'. Turn off the radio and tv when they try to blare propaganda news; don't buy any articles; never turn up for any of those pro-ceramahs, ignore their 'national' integration projects, hire only your own. And certainly, if you can, religiously practise tax avoidance. It's legal so why pay to be abused? Lastly, write more in blogs to expose the criminalities of today's governance, while providing all the support you can muster for your own community's projects, educational, social or networking. And most certainly, build your own wealth and assets and parlay them to raise your childrens' ability to leverage the world better later, whether from being better educated, or having more wealth-building accumulators."

Neil: "Draconian, don't you think? Won't these reactions to the way this country is being misgoverned draw their own reactions that will divide and bleed the country further?"

A: "Neil, privileges are man-made, not God-given. With each privilege, there is a cost to be paid somewhere. If people who receive such privileges don't want to see the log in front of their own eyes, register your dissent and anger in the most self-containing way that you can as the only thing you can say that their time of being more responsible for their spoils is long past.

You can put all the data accumulated from the last fifty years into the world's biggest supercomputer and let it process - the answer will always come out to be the same."

Neil: "Those solutions would be for those who stay, as opposed to those who leave, isn't it?"

A: "Yes, but in themselves, they are only a gesture. Why do i say this? Countries which progress faster have more porous walls. If in addition to brick walls, we erect mind walls, how can we learn the best ways to do things, and the most balanced ways to approach problems? You see, they have imprisoned their own minds. In the past, it was inequitable distribution. Now when there's more than what their official statistics deem to show, they say it's a Malaysian thing, so no one outside should presume to know better. Heck, it's like saying no religious dogma should be questioned by anyone who doesn't profess to them. Let me ask you, if you say some 10th century dogmas are as applicable today as then, how do you know that unless you step out and critically examine them? Furthermore, what happens to those people who had lived before the 10th century? Are they finished for not following what they never knew? And for those who today choose not to abide by what others deem to be the way, are they also finished even if they're charitable, kind and progressive-minded in their own modern ways in today's society? Lastly, what is the basis of religion or even the notion of Godhood that transcends the blind adherence to how dogmas should be interpreted?

It's all about mindsets, Neil. If we take only one route, whether it be of religion or socio-economic policy, to doing something, then we become beholden to the consequences either way - if it works well, ok; if it doesn't, why continue it? My question is, how much has it worked to the satisfaction of the nation as a whole, not this faction or that coterie? And this issue is at the centre of everything right now. The world has changed itself; markets are no longer beholden to nice words in glossy brochures or padded statistics by starry-eyed speakers. People who thrive in the world markets want future results now; their motto is Deliver-or-Die! They have no time for those with ultra-reputations, like one foreign minister, who now that he has seen a country like China has the tongue-in-cheek to finally admit that knowledge of the Chinese language is what makes Malaysian Chinese so much sought after for investments and business in/from that country. Why didn't he say that a long time ago? Will he be saying that to his colleague Hishammuddin and his sidekick Noh so that they will do the right thing before too late becomes bye bye? Looking at their spineless characters, why am i not so optimistic? Even Voldermort has more backbone to do the right thing."

Neil: "The best brains of the nation are leaving, A. No one leaves his own country if it is doing well and there's no issues that cannot be solved or accepted. That these intelligent people are leaving shows that they have found the sole routes being pursued locally are not the paths they would want their children and relatives to take."

A: "And, let me add, the greater tragedy is that those who can do something to stem this are the only people who won't. They know what needs to be done, but they cannot express other than "for-us-or-against-us" disguised as some artificial indignation against a perceived lack of national loyalty. Again, it's a mindset thing. Neil, if you analyze what they have all been saying so far, and look for a common skein, it shows how vaporous is their level of thinking. Let me shoot their helicopter down with a taxi - how many of those flat-foots have actually been inside a bumi company? The furniture is modern, the fittings posh, the limousines gleaming, the bank accounts awash with loans liberally given under the NEP, and the headcount more than fills a hockey stadium. But that's about all? What do they do, each and everyone - from chairman down - every minute of the day? I don't give a damn about weeks or months. Just gimme minutes. Why? Because that's how usefulness is being measured these days of warp-speeded electronic satisfaction.

These are the things those hotshots choose to ignore and then at the end of the week, go overseas and give themselves a pat on their own backs.

You see, they think of the first thing that will protect their own position, turf and fiefdom, then try to align it to some order, which they conveniently define as 'national', again to their own vocabulary, and then follow that by making all opposing voices or dissenters appear to be the enemies.

Anything but to see that the biggest enemy today is their own mindset."

Neil: "So it comes to this - leave or resist? No merdeka spirit?"

A: "What merdeka spirit are we talking about? Hankering for the best fried kuayteow in the world or having your children be the best they can because that's the best motivator for them to rise to the highest God, Life, Destiny and the Ancestors can bestow on them? Why the fcuk must they have to pick the crumbs here when meritocracy here is defined by race, excused as birthright, and practised by denial, blockage, rejection and suppression?"

Neil: "What will happen if all this continues?"

A: "Our main employer, the manufacturing sector, has hollowed out. The rate of factories relocating elsewhere exceeds that coming in or up. Furthermore, the rate of adding new value to production design and content is not fast enough to match the others. We were once a tiger. Call us a pussycat now. The others were once kittens. They're bengali man-eaters now. Go ahead, wag your spinner's tongue and prove me wrong."

Neil:"you know i am always thoughtfully quiet, A."

A:"The foreigners are beating their drums that this place ain't safe or attractive no more. If tourism goes down with oil, what will we be living on? Domestic investments? from who? the ones who have had to leave? Go agriculture? Wait for the sweet potatoes to grow? Conquer the markets of the Middle East? What is it we have that others don't and can't do as well once the OIC chair is vacated?

Those pathetic small-minded jokers - once they get some 'good luck' - they completely fall into the trap of their own small minds. They celebrate as if there's no tomorrow. Well, they may just find that out to be true."

Neil: "And we get to see more and more blatant denials and travesties of justice these days. They go unanswered - even when publicised. Take the erasure of the passport entries of the mongolians. If a police report has been filed, why the deafening silence on action up to now? For a nation so full of mayhem, we sure have deafening silences all over the place. Isn't there disquieting?"

A:"Sometimes i think you're cute, Neil, but then again, how can that be when you have such roguish good looks? Now, don't waste my time; go pull some heartstrings, old man."