JUNE 26 — It is annoying to see Malaysians caught up in the petty politicking that is PKR’s never-ending internal power struggles and the fun guessing game of when is “Tun Dr Mahathir stepping down.”

Will we ever not be distracted by political scandals and the non-stop jostle for power that goes on with our politicians?

I really think that apart from threatening to jump to Barisan (again) we have to think of our own role in this grand sandiwara.

It is said that a people get the leaders they deserve and seeing who we have now, I think we all need a collective look in the mirror.

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A lot of blame does lie on our politicians, past and present, for the state of our country but in the 21st century we also need to remember just who voted them in.

We cannot keep hoping and praying that a hero will reform our political institutions because changing an institution from the inside does not work.

It never does.

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Because an institution is in itself an entity that will shape its members and rarely the other way around — unless you happen to have founded said institution.

It’s cliched and repetitive, yes, to say that Malaysians need to be their own heroes.

Now more than ever, as Malay Mail’s managing editor Leslie Lau said in a commentary a few days back, Malaysia needs a new cohesive narrative.

The US and Malaysia have many strange parallels but rather than get into that, why don’t we instead look at what we can learn from our powerful sort-of-ally?

For better or for worse, Americans believed in an American Dream.

Our current prime minister made a stab at that with Wawasan 2020 but manifestos are tricky things.

We have to cast off old slogans as Malaysians like the new and shiny so I suppose we will need to retire the following: Malaysia Boleh, 1Malaysia, A Better Malaysia, Make Malaysia Great Again (was that a thing? I’m old I can’t recall) and anything that has ever been on a banner or billboard in this country.

Let’s be brave enough to start over.

We are creative enough to use emergency lanes to beat the traffic I am sure that Malaysians can come up with something better than what we’ve tried.

Sadly, Malaysia Can Do Better is not a sexy tagline and Nike’s Just Do It would be interpreted by Malaysians as Just Du-it so that won’t work.

Everyone loves a good story and it’s time we get down to the real work — to start writing a new one for our nation. Every day brings new hope, new chances and new impetus to make this country better.

At the risk of sounding like a Disney film, I think it’s time we start believing we can.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.