“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.” – Mark Twain
In the midst of all the current political debates, upheavals, discussions and wars, the questions that came to me this morning were: How are we supposed to decide and choose which party to follow? Where does our true allegiance lie?
Should it be with the political party whose beliefs you feel closest to? Or should it be with the political party whom your family has supported since long? Most of my younger generation is unable to make this choice and are not too keen on engaging themselves into this confusing, complicated and dirty world because they do not see a future in it ‒ they do not see a hope in it for themselves.
I believe that this is mostly because there is lack of consensus on the fact that our true allegiance should be to our country. All politicians and policy-makers (well, most of them) started off with a strong will to make change to the society and to bring in something different for the advancement of the country but obviously got side-tracked at some point. Most of them barely acknowledge now that the youth have a role in society and should be shown the path to showing allegiance to their country.
Given the current situation where brain-drain is pretty much still existent in our society and that the possibilities of relocating to another part of the world are endless, current politicians should be giving the younger generation a reason to stay and a reason to fight for something worthy. After all, aren’t we the future of this country?
Instead of focusing on criticising the other parties, politicians should be focusing on bringing in the nation behind them for the common purpose of bettering the country as a whole and certainly not for a particular community. This is the prevailing political environment we, the younger generation, are currently seeing: a divide amongst our leaders who are only using their words to keep the seat of power or to get to the seat of power.
It feels that the country needs a leader whose actions speak louder than words… and whose allegiance is predominantly to the country rather than just power. Allegiance is a strong word that people use in a very loose way these days. When deciding where your allegiance lies, it does not matter what community you belong to, it does not matter where you come from ‒ what matters is the recognition that the country has major issues on which we should be focusing on. Issues such as youth unemployment and climate change are real and will not be going away any time soon unless we do something about it.
And it is also up to us the younger generation to forget the old politics and focus on this “new-age politics” where your true allegiance is foremost to your country. Our generation has the ability to bring in a fresh wave that has the potential to create a huge upheaval. The only thing lacking is that innate belief that we can do something.
Much of the younger generation who are not getting involved and who are not showing an ounce of interest should understand the consequences of their inaction: you are losing our right to have a say in society and to have a say on the things that matter to you. You are giving others a free pass to decide on our future. And that’s a question we should all ponder on: do we just let it happen?
Many people might also argue that we do not have enough substance to bring in something concrete and we are not going to be able to change the current system. I am not going to say that it is going to be easy to make our voices heard ‒ but it is indeed worth a try ‒ for our own generation and generations to come. How do we make our voices heard, you may ask? This is done by taking the simplest of steps: get involved in your community, get aware of the issues that are prevailing around you, make up your own opinion, find a solution to the problem, get in touch with the leaders in your society and make your voices heard.
So stand up for what you believe in, show your allegiance to your country. If we do not do it, who will?
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