By Kuik Cheng Kang, Sin Chew Daily

On a Sunday morning, former NTV7 and 8TV editor-in-chief Mohsin Abdullah suddenly sent me the video of the song "We're getting old, brothers" sung by Chinese singer Chen Min.

I clicked and listened. Other than the singer's clean and almost ethereal voice, what agitated my feelings was the lyric that smoothly flowed into my ears.

Time passes by quietly,

Only the memories remain,

Looking back, my brothers,

It's already half a century!

Our youth is slowly fading away,

All that's left is remembrance,

Thinking of my brothers in my dream,

Life has not been easy.

We're getting old, brothers,

Take good care of your health in the remaining years,

Let go of all the unhappiness,

Don't keep it inside you,

Brotherhood lasts the whole life,

And we may not see one another again the next life,

Let's find time to meet regularly,

Have some wine and pour out our feelings,

Understand more and show less temper.

Time passes by quietly,

Only the memories remain,

Looking back, my brothers,

It's already half a century!

Our youth is slowly fading away,

All that's left is remembrance,

Thinking of my brothers in my dream,

Life has not been easy.

We're getting old, brothers,

Take good care of your health in the remaining years,

Those past troubles,

Put them behind you if you can,

My brothers,

Nothing in life cannot be settled,

Take time off to go home and gather,

Make some tea and talk about the past

Care about one another, brothers.

We're getting old, brothers,

Take good care of your health in the remaining years,

Those past troubles,

Put them behind you if you can,

My brothers,

Nothing in life cannot be settled,

Take time off to go home and gather,

Make some tea and talk about the past

Care about one another, brothers.

And cherish the brotherhood.

Looking back, these old brothers from the Malay and English language press: Mohsin, The Star Media advisor Wong Chun Wai and former editor-in-chief Leanne Goh, the late Malay Mail former editor-in-chief Wong Sai Wan, Utusan Malaysia former editor-in-chief Aziz Ishak and former deputy editor-in-chief Zaini Hasan, and the late Sinar Harian editor-in-chief Baharom Mahusin and current editor-in-chief Rozaid Abdul Rahman — we all joined the journalistic line at more or less the same time, and later ascended to editorial helmsmanship at our respective organizations.

Some have retired today, or have switched line, while two of them have left us early. Today, only Sinar Harian's Rozaid and I are still in this business.

After listening to the song "We're getting old, brothers", the memories of us out in the field together covering news events, attending the National Economic Consultative Council meeting representing our respective organizations, and being questioned by the home ministry over some of the news we published – all came back to me instantaneously.

At a time when new COVID-19 infections and deaths are registering new highs globally, my heart was warmed by the greetings that came from my old friend Mohsin in the form of a spirit-lifting song. During such trying times, nothing comes more pertinent than a sincere wish that all these old friends are safe and healthy.

Now look back at our own country Malaysia, the political and COVID-19 situations here are just as disheartening.

Politicians who have fooled the nation for the past so many decades are still stubbornly clinging on to power, robbing us of our remaining hope for this country's future.

Nevertheless, I have always believed that while we may get disappointed with anything at times, we must never lose our hopes!

I still see hope in this demanding war against the virus.

I have discovered that there is this beautiful arch of rainbow that will never leave us no matter how hard the storm batters.

For more than 60 years now, people living in this country have been able to receive different streams of primary school education, despite the fact Chinese primary schools and independent high schools have been constantly demonized as the stumbling block to national unity.

At a time the country is thrashed by a disaster of unprecedented scale, Malaysians from very different religious, cultural and educational backgrounds (including SJKC and independent Chinese high school students) have demonstrated a remarkably higher degree of patriotism, compassion as well as solidarity than those hypocritical politicians who have secretly sent their children or grandchildren to international schools or overseas.

Although life has been harsh on us, we are still willing to hold out a hand and share what we have with our fellow Malaysians in need.

Even before the Muhyiddin administration came up with the food basket program, ordinary citizens of different races, big and small business owners who were themselves under tremendous financial pressure, were already there preparing food for the starving, cheering for those hard pressed by life.

Many of the politicians have been distancing themselves from the people ever since the onset of the pandemic, while others are drawing up plans to seize government power.

Few elected reps would really show up and help, and only a handful had worked with local NGOs to assist their constituents before the PN government's RM300,000 food basket allocations arrived.

As for most other elected reps, they have hardly exercised their influences to help the rakyat, and have acted very slowly even after receiving government allocations.

So, open your eyes big, my fellow Malaysian voters, and see what your YBs have done for you.

I can see from this pandemic that the tolerance of many young Malaysians have been stretched to a limit, taking to social media to express their frustration, be it in rap, comics or other forms. These young people do not look at things from the perspectives of race or religion, but specifically at the performance of the government or certain ministers, and have voiced up over the many injustices of our society as well.

It's the shameless politicians who have thrown us all into the quagmire of hate that are still plotting the same old dirty tricks to steal our votes, thinking that young voters are just a bunch of fools they can easily manipulate and exploit.

Do we still want those senile, directionless and worthless politicians who have no clear visions for this country except for their own gains, to continue leading this country?

Retire them now! Enough is enough!