Malaysia’s 15th General Election was held on the 19th of November 2022 against the backdrop of rising cost of living, political instability and global uncertainties.

Data menunjukkan 1 daripada 5 atau 20% orang yang tinggal di kawasan konflik mengalami isu kesihatan mental (ICRC, 2021). Natijahnya, mereka yang tinggal di zon konflik menderita masalah kesihatan mental tiga kali ganda lebih berbanding masyarakat awam.

According to evidence, one person in every five – 20 percent – of people who live in conflict zones have some form of mental health issue (ICRC, 2021). Hence, in a conflict affected area, people suffer from mental health issue three times more than the general public and this is not just an issue of prevalence but an issue of access.

I visited the National Museum in Kuala Lumpur a few months ago and saw the Patani Malay kingdom stamps being exhibited. I quickly turned on my phone camera, and sent the picture to a Patani social worker who attended a workshop IMAN organised on para-counsellor training in early October 2022, to train Patani social workers on counselling skills.

2022 started with some hope that the year will be better than 2021, but alas the realities of the socio-economic fallout of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns started to kick in.

Malay-Muslim’s identity and Malaysia’s political arena are inseparable. Due to the existence of ethnoreligious based parties such as United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), and other ethnic minority parties such as Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Council (MIC), ethnoreligious issues have always been used for political mileage.