20

SEP

No, we don’t want change!

posted on Sunday, 2009

Ooooooooo…. I have not been this furious for a long, long time!

 

I can feel a torrent of unmentionable vocabulary pushing up from the pit of my stomach to the tip of my tongue.

 

It wasn’t that hard to restrain myself though… I was just speechless and flabbergasted.

 

Well, I’m just a resident here, with no voice to the political proceedings and policies in Western Australia… but I doubt if any one voice will make any difference. The status quo position is just too strong.

 

To Singaporeans who think they are missing out on the multi-party system of democracy, let me tell you this… this kind of democracy is overrated. Between good governance and the so-called true democracy, I will vote for the former any time.

 

While I mentioned in an earlier blog that retail therapy is no longer essential for me, I still appreciate the convenience of being able to head out on any evening for some last-minute purchases… instead of the following situations:

 

Oh, I ran out of this sauce… can’t cook this dish tonight!

Forgot to thaw out the meat, but can’t get fresh ones from the supermarkets…

Someone’s birthday tomorrow… it’s too late to get any presents!

 

For those who had studied or lived in Western Australia before, yes, it’s the same old argument whether the Liberal or Labor Party is in power. Party A will propose extending the trading hours. Party B will oppose. When Party B wins the elections, they will propose the exact same thing they rejected when they were the opposition party. And Party A will… yes, you guess it, oppose the same motion they had raised when they were in power.

 

The way things progress (or not) around here, you would think that we are still lighting candles instead of flicking on a switch… or we are still riding horse-drawn carts or using the bucket system in wooden shed toilets.

 

While many people here appear keen for trading hours to be extended, the polls said otherwise. A whopping “NO” in the 2005 referendum, and the politicians are still using this four-year-old statistics as the golden rule.

There is just a stubborn, illogical resistance to change.

 

Shall we change to make life better? NO
Shall we change in keeping with the rest of Australia? NO NO
Shall we move into the 21st century? NO NO NO!!!

 

Simmering down a bit, I realised that God has to regularly face stiff-necked people like that… oh no, people just like us! NOOOOO… people just like me!

 

How frustrating and heart-wrenching it must be for Him! He cannot do anything with a free-willed but unyielded people.

Day after day after day,

I beckoned Israel with open arms,

And got nothing for my trouble

but cold shoulders and icy stares.

Romans 10:21 (The Message)

 

…He became set in his own stubborn ways—he never gave God a thought;

repentance never entered his mind.

2 Chronicles 36:13b (The Message)

 

"You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears!

You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!

Acts 7:51 (New International Version)

 

We do regular health checks to make sure that our physical body is in good shape and not beset by any problems. But an even more important check–a daily spiritual self-examination–is to ensure that our hearts stay soft, our heads can still bow low in humility and our spirits remain yielded to the Lord.

 

Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.

Deuteronomy 10:16 (The Message)

 

Look around you: Everything you see is God's—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. But it was your ancestors who God fell in love with; he picked their children—that's you!—out of all the other peoples. That's where we are right now. So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. God, your God, is the God of all gods, he's the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn't play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 10:14-18 (New International Version)