Are we, or not?

You know, we Malaysians pride ourselves at being one of the most diverse yet stable nations on earth. But some of our leaders continue to warn us that national stability and security is constantly being threatened by "undesired elements", as if May 13 could erupt again anytime. (By the way, what was the root cause of May 13? Anybody?)

So, what are we? Stable or unstable? United or divided? Integrated or disintegrated? Surely we can't be both.

Is our stability inherent and internal, or is it merely exerted on us from the outside, and liable to break down the moment controls are let go?

Are we like Yugoslavia, where the peace and harmony was merely forced by dictatorial rule, and quickly broke down the moment the control was released?

Or are we truly united from within, such that we can weather racial and religious conflicts with maturity, showing grace to one another?

We can't be totally stable and unstable at the same time. We must be somewhere on the continuum between both ends of the scale.

Perhaps the more important question to ask is, which end of the national stability and unity continuum are we moving towards?

But as long as the present government continues to rule by force, we will never really know whether we are merely forced to tolerate one another, or we truly love our neighbour as ourselves.