FOR someone who’s usually in bed well before midnight, I found myself wide awake in the early hours of May 10. At one point, I looked at the clock and it was already 4am, and I was still wide awake. It was as if there was a constant supply of adrenaline in my bloodstream, and I was ready to take on a full marathon.

Those moments will remain embedded in the minds of many Malaysians for years to come because they were going to change our lives.

Leading up to the 14th general election, I personally did not have any hope of a change in government, given the gerrymandering and exchange of money blatantly taking place right before our eyes. I was feeling helpless and, perhaps, even hopeless that there was nothing I could do, other than just cast my vote.

Changing a government that has been in power since independence was something many of us did not expect to happen, and it is certainly a breath of fresh air and the dawn of a renewed hope. From being in a situation of fear, hopelessness and despair, as the tides were changing, our fears turned into courage, hopelessness into hopefulness and despair into confidence. Signs of a new Malaysia could be seen on the horizon.

It would be premature to assume and even foolish to think that with this renewed courage, hopefulness and confidence, all our past problems will go away, or what was prohibited before will now be our right. Any society that has been fractured because of mistrust, lack of respect and manipulation for this long surely needs time to be restored. There is much to be done, but most of us want to see those changes done as quickly as possible. “Rome was not built in a day”, and that is so true, given the new Malaysian reality.

The work of reconciliation and restoration is not just the work of the government or those in power.

In fact, nation-building is the work of every citizen, irrespective of age, creed, ethnicity or gender. The author Idowu Koyenikan once wrote: “Your pride for your country should not come after your country becomes great; your country becomes great because of your pride in it.”

It is time to make our country great again, but it needs the hands of every person.

It is time now for us to put aside our individual issues and look at the bigger picture of nation-rebuilding. It is quite easy for many people to be frustrated when they begin to see that their concerns or issues are not being cared for, and quickly lose the courage, hopefulness and confidence, replacing them with sarcasm, pessimism and, perhaps, even doubt. The road to recovery is not going to be easy, but what is required of all of us is patience, patience and patience.

There are many things that need to be done in order to make our nation great again, but certainly, all cannot be done in the first 100 days and, perhaps, not even in the next five years. But what can certainly set us on the path of becoming great is to bring down the walls that divide us, walls that have been created because of religion, ethnicity, gender, origin, political affiliation, etc. Let us now look at each other as Malaysians, brothers and sisters, striving for a better nation for ourselves and for the generations to come.

Many people dreamt of seeing May 10, 2018 – including my late father, who had been a faithful civil servant all his working life, but did not live to see this. We now have a great opportunity to make their dreams, and ours too, a reality that not many people thought would happen. I myself recall telling someone: “I didn’t think I would live to see a new beginning for Malaysia.”

We all have an opportunity – whether you call it a “Malaysian tsunami”, “people’s power” or any other name you can think of. This is our moment to shape, rebuild and restore our nation for the common good. For this moment in our history, “puji dan syukur pada illahi… sejahtera Malaysia”. – May 28, 2018.

* Dr Clarence Devadass is a Catholic priest and director of the Catholic Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur. Moral education is an issue close to his heart. He focuses on paving resourceful ways to promote virtues for living in a multireligious society, for a significant life together.