Yes We Can ... Boleh

President-elect Barack Hussein Obama ended his victory speech yesterday with this paragraph:

"This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we cant, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

“Yes We Can.”

The chant ringing from Grant Park, Chicago yesterday and at all of President-elect Obama’s rallies reminded all and sundry that faith in our own abilities to effect changes actually does bring change that we need.

It is kind of telling that self-confidence is not necessarily always misplaced as often told by those whose lives are spent being cynic and sceptics. I am not a complete optimistic person but sometimes I realised the lack of optimism is the one thing that most of time causes us to fail even before we start.

This picture in the New Straits Times struck me today,
Yes we can was rather interestingly translated as simply Boleh.

I guess then what our former PM, Tun Dr Mahathir was telling us is to have confidence in our abilities to make changes and do what needs to be done. All these years of the opposition making fun of ‘bolehland’ is probably simply a way of sapping our hope and our confidence to make a difference, to make the change that we need to make in our lives, our race and our nation.

We have been told that we cannot make these changes on the status quo, but one of the many things that the Mahathir era has told us, the status quo keeps changing as suited the times. I am not saying everything that was done in those 22 years was right but a large percentage was right for this country at that point in time.

Now is the time to make changes. We can’t allow for things to go the same way ever again. Not if care for our children. If we ever have any doubts, just keep whispering, Yes we can … or better still “memang BOLEH”. After all we had that earlier ... much earlier.