I
don’t listen to Malay songs apart and the only Malay songs I know are those Eid
songs and some Sheila Majid and the late Sudirman songs. Of those Sudirman
songs that I know, I do love some of them and even used to hum to them. I think
it’s somewhat apt and fitting that one of the songs chosen for this year’s
Independence Day celebration is Sudirman’s Warisan song and I’m only surprised it
took the organising committee this long to realise how apt the song is.
Malaysia
will be celebrating its 57th year of independence this year (OK,
some will argue it’s Malaysia’s 51st year of independence because it
only came into being when Sabah and Sarawak joined the Federation of Malaya to
form Malaysia in 1963) and yet, I feel depressed sometimes when I look around
me. I don’t know if we Malaysians really know how to be good Malaysians. It’s a
fact that not everyone has a good command of the official language, heck, some
can’t even speak it (and yet the foreign workers speak it fluently!). Shame on those
of you who call yourselves Malaysians but can’t even converse in the official
language. We look down upon the language, we corrupt it, we bastardise it, we
make fun of it – in short, we have no respect for it. We’re almost ashamed of
it. We will never be able to be like Indonesia whose people speak Bahasa
Indonesia fluently and proudly. Sure, they have many dialects and Bahasa
Indonesia is the one language uniting them. But what about us? We are too
ashamed to speak Bahasa Melayu so how can it unite us? And what about the
principles of Malaysia (Rukunegara)? I doubt if everyone knows it. I dare say
there are some who don’t even know the words to Rukunegara, what more
understand and try instilling those principles within themselves.
Look
around you, you see litter everywhere. On the field, on the road, at the bus
stop, outside the shopping malls, in the bus, it’s everywhere! I get tired of
seeing all the rubbish. I get angry at the litterbugs. Don’t you have pride in
yourself? Don’t you love the city and the country? Don’t you care about the
environment? Or do you just think ‘it’s OK, there are always those who will
clean up after me?’ What selfish pathetic twisted mind can think like that? But
believe me, there are many Malaysians who think that.
And
what about respect? Respect for your neighbours, for the elders, for the young,
for pedestrians, for the environment (no littering), for the buildings (no
graffiti, no destruction of old buildings which can be conserved)... the list
goes on. There is seldom any courtesy accorded to pedestrians: who cares if
they have to cross the road, let’s run the light! Who cares about this
pedestrian walkway, let’s ride the motorbike here as it serves as a shortcut
and saves our trip! That building looks like it needs a paint, hey, we might as
well decorate it with graffiti! The boss is on leave today, let’s go for an
early lunch! We don’t stop to think how the others view us as long as we derive
satisfaction from it no matter how perverse or twisted it is.
Then
there are those who don’t care if the country is gone to the dogs in the
pursuit of their political ambition. Who cares about the state of education
system? Who cares if our universities rank so low in the world? Who cares about
we can’t prepare the future generation to lead the country? Who cares if we don’t
nurture sportsmen? Who cares about the ranking of our football/hockey teams?
It
would be simply depressing to go on. I would like to think I’m wrong except
that I see the above failures every day and I don’t see them stopping any time
soon.
Anyway.
Selamat Hari Merdeka, Malaysia.
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