Note: The following blog post was drafted about two years ago, but for some reasons it went unpublished until today. I left it as it is, save for a few minor editing (paragraph 8 onwards). Rereading the blog post, it looks like we have progressed very little. Malaysia is still very much divided along political and racial lines. Issues pertaining to race and religion continues to dominate the media headlines as well as online and social media discussions.  ----------------------- At the time of writing this post I am currently halfway (2013 note: completed) reading  Dominique Moisi 's excellent piece of work, " The Geopolitics of Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation, and Hope are Reshaping the World ". Though there are several glaring factual and interpretive mistakes (especially concerning Malaysia and former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's speech) it doesn't affect much of the author's main thesis; particularly on fear, hope and humiliation, an