AUGUST 12 — It never fails to irk me how subservient Malaysians can be.

Attach a title to a name and witness the automatic bowing and scraping, the shuffling, the crocodile smiles.

Behind all that simpering is the (not so secret) hope that with the obeisance, that the supplicant too will one day be elevated to a higher rank.

It's disgusting.

On social media, the hero worship has gone way past nauseating. This person and that person being lifted up onto pedestals, the new hope to save us from the supposed evils of the current government.

“Oh, my! The brother of so-and-so should have been the one in politics, why isn't he in charge?”

“He was punished for speaking up and showing backbone! Truly he could lead the way to change!”

“She is the daughter of so-and-so, she should lead us next!”

I'm just waiting for someone to chime in with “Maybe the British should take us back!”

Please, Malaysians, stop it. In a real democracy, elected leaders do not try and pass on their positions to their children. Look up “nepotism” in your nearest dictionary or Google it.

There is no magic juju that is passed down through blood that makes someone more fit to be a leader.

While we're on the subject, let us also examine our need to hero worship the rich. The way people go on about the founder of Air Asia, for instance, it's as though he invented the cure for cancer or singlehandedly saved an endangered species from extinction.

No, he just made a lot of money. Being able to make a lot of money does not make a person a better human being as can be evidenced by the example of humanity we call Donald Trump.

You know who makes the rich people? It's not them enriching themselves by the sheer amount of talent or hard work. Some people are rich because they inherited the money. Some stole the money. Some get rich by donations. Money is not the barometer by which you judge a person's character.

I hate reading glowing profiles written about so-called titans of industry because at the back of my mind all I can think about are the hundreds of thousands of people making poverty wages while making those titans rich.

Let's be honest and just realise that our abdicating our responsibilities as citizens to people who care only for their own welfare is partly why we're in this mess.

You know how rich people stay rich? By doing whatever it takes to stay that way. Even if it means cutting staff for the sake of efficiency and productivity, giving themselves raises and hiring their children just to make sure the money stays in the family.

And yet we keep insisting on giving rich people even more power by putting them in government. How does this in any way make any sense? 

We have created a structure where joining politics is a potentially lucrative route to quick enrichment. Politics shouldn't be a moneymaking scheme. Yet here we are, locked into a system where corruption is so endemic we like pretending it doesn't exist.

It is up to us, to demand reform.

It is up to us, to make our voices heard even when we are told to obey and be quiet, well-behaving citizens.

It is up to us, to finally stop pretending that we are powerless in the shadows of those who wield so much power and riches.

Stop hoping on some Datuk or Tan Sri to swoop in and save the nation. For once, get this into your head: people with more money or more power does not make them the best choices to run the country. We've had that for more than 50 years and where has it gotten us?

We also need to stop depending on past politicians ― they had their chance, let us move forward to different names, different means. We have to be our own champions now whether we like it or not, whether we want to or not.

The wolves have been in charge of the sheep for far too long. It's time the sheep learned to bite.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.