THE CICAK.com

PART I: Merdeka on my mind

By KEITH LEONG

As a young boy, I was always excited about Merdeka. There was something about the yards and yards of flags, the pageantry and black-and-white images of Tunku Abdul Rahman that got me extra hyper.

I would get up early, jump around the house, scream “MERDEKA� three times and sing the Sudirman song. This was my ritual every year on 31 August.

Even when I was overseas I felt compelled to commemorate it.

Usually it would mean wishing “Happy Merdeka!� to the few Malaysians I knew in Sydney at around 4:45 p.m. There was a year when I considered planting a Jalur Gemilang in my college courtyard and proclaiming it Malaysian soil for 24 hours, but thought better of it.

Tomorrow, I will probably be jumping around my house at about 6 a.m. yelling like a maniac despite my family’s disapproval.

In contrast to my youthful enthusiasm, I know and have heard of Malaysians who do not honour 31 August. To them, Merdeka Day should be spent sleeping or wandering around shopping complexes.

Some people would even find celebrating our “independence� repugnant, seeing this day as a tasteless acclamation of all that is objectionable about Malaysia.

I am not making these comparisons to boost my patriotic credentials or to condemn the people from the latter group. I have listed them simply to illustrate the great disparity that exists between Malaysians when it comes to things like this. You can be sure that all Malaysians, despite our reputation for apathy, have a wide range of opinions on whatever issues that confront our nation. It is just that those opinions are so conflicted and differing from each other that they make the public anxious.

I am a member of probably the most fractured and contentious generation that has ever existed in any country of the world in history. My fellow young Malaysians are divided, some say irreparably so. The future for unity is bleak.

We are divided by race. We are divided by religion. We are divided by education, socio-economic status and cultural differences. Yet we are, have been, and will continue to be one nation.

All of this has led to Malaysians being the wonderfully, tragically complex people that they are. My fellow Malaysians are hardcore liberals and ultra-conservatives. They are socially progressive and total reactionaries. The utterly colour-blind exist side-by-side with the most irredeemable bigots. The virulent atheists live and work with the religious fundamentalists. Dyed-in-wool idealists and the bitterest cynics pass each other on the street. Government propaganda hails Malaysia’s diversity because several ethnic groups are supposedly able to live together in harmony. But I think what is truly remarkable about our country is that it has been able to produce such a wide range of ideological orientations in our citizens, and still maintain (perhaps against our will) some consensus of sorts.

It is because of these disparities that many people are pessimistic about Malaysians achieving unity.

PART II will be published tomorrow.

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KEITH LEONG is a contributing writer for theCICAK.

Keith was born in Melaka, grew up in Damansara Jaya and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He enjoys baroque music, grand epic movies and long walks. He still lives and works in Damansara Jaya.