surat.

dear Suzy,

you're five years old today, as i write to your older self. i write with much hope that you would be part of a generation that will not end up as ruined as ours.

i was born in the age of the revolution, dear Suzy. you may remember faintly the times when all your uncles and aunties would not shut up about how corrupted the government was. that is the time i am freely alive in. the time of tear-gas bombs and protests, the time of not being able to identify between peaceful gatherings and chaotic riots, the time when all our lives seemed like a bubbling cauldron of mess, waiting to overflow and spill everywhere.

i'm writing to you now, because i want you to know this: never stop fighting.

i don't know how life will be like for you in twenty years' time, when you're a young woman with great ambitions and dreams for yourself or perhaps, greater yet, for more than just yourself. (there's really nothing wrong with having dreams for yourself though, but mark my words, Suzy--the most life-changing ideas sparked from a heightened sense of selflessness. i hope you will have the courage and strength to pursue it.) but i am writing this to you because i want you to know, at the age of 25, no matter how Malaysia may be in 2035, i need you to understand that the fight is never over. not when we elect a new Prime Minister, not when we arrest those who had gone against the law, and especially not when the government is no longer under a certain party that has ruled too long.

you will have your own age of revolution, just like me. i never thought i would come to live in a time where everything seems like it's constantly falling apart. people stopped seeing hope in their lives--in the people around them and themselves. they stopped believing in greater things. as long as you open your eyes and heart, Suzy, you will see and know that there will always be communities who are crying out for help. and we will never stop fighting for a cause we believe in.

the fight does not end in a single, fleeting moment. it never does. and it speaks perfectly of our purposes as people, Suzy. we're not here to fight one another, heavens no. we're here to fight for each other. to speak up on differences and make one another understand. to hold hands, while staring at our scars, knowing that we can be happy together. the fight never ends because we want to keep fighting hatred with love, corruption with integrity, lies with honesty, cruelty with mercy, grudge with forgiveness--and just so much more. wherever you're headed to, Suzy, i hope you go with a heart full of love, hope, and unending dreams. know that Malaysia, your dear nation, the land where your blood spills upon, will always be home.

i hope you understand, Suzy, that our purpose here, is to leave a mark; the kind of legacy one would look back at and go, i've done the best i could.

love, Uncle Zainal