I come from a country of promise, where spotless streets and skyscrapers sparkle in the sun. I come from a country where pristine tropical paradise awaits me at my doorstep. I come from a country that rests in a cradle of safety. I come from a country of merit, of brains, of talent raised from young, of geniuses that think decades ahead of their time. I come from a country where utopian lives are integrated with technology. I come from a country where the dark-skinned and light-skinned unite under a band of togetherness.  

But I also come from a country whose people find every reason to complain about their sheltered, cushioned lives. A country where academics matter over everything else, where children learn that they are nothing more than their mistakes. A country where rest is a luxury, time is a luxury, a car is a luxury, a house is a luxury, land is a luxury, a white-collar job is a luxury. A country whose people must be the first to everything, where the only satisfaction comes from the pitfalls of others. A country of millionaires and billionaires and everyone else a slave to the hustle. A country where men give their best two years to the army, carry a gun, march with heavy vests through thick mosquito-riddled jungle, bleed, sweat and scream for this country and see a foreigner with no fight take their job, their house, their money, their living. A country with institutions ranked among the world’s top yet infested with a growing plague of unemployment.  

A country that is dying, as it bakes under infernally hot sunny days, as babies vanish to the infertility crisis and the silver tsunami of the old makes landfall, as diversity, kampong spirit, hawker centers and the arts suffocate under rising costs and fading passions, as the law continues to chase those who dare seek enjoyment and escape.  

I come from a country that needs to stop flattering itself. I come from a country that needs new leaders. I come from a country that needs to stop paying lip service. I come from a country that needs new life.