Once a wise man asked a powerful caliph (I believe it was Harun Al Rashid), "What if you are dying of thirst and I had a glass of water, what would you give me?" The Caliph replied, "I would give you half my kingdom".

Then the man continued "What then, after this water has gone through your body and is stopped from exiting your body, what would you give me if I can remove this barrier?" The Caliph replied, "Then I would give you the other half of my kingdom."

The wise man said, "What! Do you mean to tell me that your whole kingdom is only worth a glass of water and a pot of urine?"

As we mark the 20th anniversary of our prime minister's reign in power, I can't help asking myself if there is any reason to celebrate. I have nothing personal against our prime minister, but we need a reason to celebrate.

After 20 years, we maybe a more industralized nation but are we better off for it? We have switched our dependence from agriculture to industry. But we can't eat semiconductors.

Investors were once pouring in faster than we could cope. As a result we developed at an unsustainable rate, bringing in workers from all over the world.

There seems to me, a big problem with investors, and that is that they have a fickle mind and all they care about is making that fast buck.

Once, labour was cheap here and so they came, but now that this place is no longer profitable, they leave and go to 'greener pastures', like China.

What! Communist China? you may ask.

Why not, the investors say, the capitalists of the world can make money anywhere, even from communism.

For a while we were surviving by importing (and oppressing) cheap labour from other countries such as Indonesia and Bangladesh, by doing so, we kept ourselves competitive. But it would seem that this is not enough. The investors still do not want to come.

So where has that left us, now? We now have all these semiconductor and other such factories, but no one wants to buy our products since we are supposedly expensive compared with China; after all, the cost of manufacturing in China is cheaper.

And the fact that the US is facing an economic slowdown is not helping us much.

Perhaps one of the reasons why the investors are not coming is because they fear an unstable government. So, should we endure injustice and oppression so that the investors should continue coming? If so, I think we are selling ourselves too cheap. But then again, that is what those guys call us, 'cheap labour'. We seem to have lost all sense of honour.

Malaysia seems to be standing at the crossroads. Is it too late to turn back? Can we go back to agriculture? At least we can eat that stuff. And let's face it, oil don't last forever, and we seem to be sucking that stuff out quicker than milkshakes on a hot day.

Never mind, maybe we have other reason to celebrate. What has happened to the judiciary? Perhaps we have a higher sense of morality these days? Maybe we have more progressive laws now?

Our academic institutions at one time was considered to be of world standard. Now, everyone complaints of the apparent decline in them. But then again, we, the students are not allowed to think, we are only supposed to study. If we don't, we will be removed, erased.

I like to wish our prime minister a happy anniversary, and ask if he would listen to us, his subjects. I am willing to forgive any mistakes our prime minister has made in the past; after all nobody is perfect. I ask him, in all humbleness, to put right what is wrong.

It is never too late for that.