Patriotism in Unity - The Name of The Game

Now that August month is here & in conjunction of the coming Merdeka (Independence Day) in 2 days time, the theme of the month is none other than unity. I mean what other theme is there to talk about besides unity? It has been 4 years since my last post about this topic, titled Merdeka & how much things has changed since.

Racist remarks, threats to people of other races, acts that showed disrespect to other religions/beliefs, all well publicized all over the medias over the past 4 years & it's still ongoing. Done not by ordinary people like u & me, but sadly by people holding prominent roles in the society, people who are supposed to be the role models for the society, people who are supposingly upholding the law. And the blame game goes on & on. I don't need to specifically mention any here since most of you, readers of this post are well savvy enough to know what's I'm talking about.

That's talking about the present. Speaking about future, looking at the youth & kids' behaviours today, we are bound to be worried about how can they help shape this country. U see children mixing only with other people of their own race in school canteen. Go to a mamak restaurant, u see groups segregated according to races. That's not all. Blame it on plain ignorance or lack of awareness or whatever, u see youths today (and matured adults too) don't really understand the culture / beliefs / practices of the other races. True story accounts, some people still cant differentiate a tosai, a capati & a poori. Some still don't understand why a Chinese can celebrate both Chinese New Year & Christmas. Some people think Deepavali is a celebration of Indian new year. Many people have never attend a Malay kenduri. Some people think dialects like Hokkien, Cantonese, Hakka are all the same besides Mandarin.

The point is, if we don't know the other customs & beliefs, how are we to know how to respect them? The rule in the corporate world is, if u don't know about a topic or don't know what to talk about, u keep your mouth shut. And here, u have some people (prominent ones at that) trying to be too smart by telling the public about their standings, without thinking of the consequences. Best part is, even if we try to follow other customs, we will get a certain look from them as if it's abnormal for us to do it. I still got stared at, whenever I use my hand to eat banana leaf rice. Many people are surprised when they know I can speak pretty good Malay.

Most recent news is about how an act of kindness shown by Raven Murugesan towards a Muslim cashier, has created a big buzz in the Net. Not undermining what Raven has done but during the time of our parents, what he has done is an usual random thing to do then & there's nothing to shout about really. Today, it's seems to be a BIG deal for a person to show kindness towards another person of other race. We just fail to understand that when we see a person beyond the colour of his/her skin, all we're looking is just another child of God. If we're to put one finger each from ourselves & that person & cut the fingers, what we're bound to see is only red coloured blood from both fingers. I've said this before in previous posts that if the Americans take centuries to accept a black as a president, then this young country of ours at 56 years old, has a long way to go to be able to progress as a nation for all.

We can complain for the whole day, telling about what's went wrong and have brainstorming session with the who's who on how to do better as a nation. Will things improve? Merdeka is not about who fly the most numbers of national flags or who hoist the flag the highest. Merdeka is not about having to stand up to Negaraku each time I go to cinema. Kee Thuan Chye hit the bull's eye in his blog when he said patriotism is what u carry in your heart - your love for your country, if u want to put it that way. It is something that make you decide you will fight to protect it, perhaps even die for it.

And it's not the question about what other should do to make things better but instead, it's about what can we do to make things better. Our forefathers has fought their lives for this country & it is us, who should be making efforts to preserve peace and unity in the country. We show the others how to become a better Malaysian by becoming one ourselves. A divine teaching said, life around us is a reflection of ourselves. And we change others by changing ourselves. And me? Life has never been better, having great friends from all walks of life and I truly thanked God for this. And these crazy, memorable experiences will definitely be shared with my children in future to inspire them to help create a better Malaysia.

The Akurians

Happy Merdeka everyone !!!!

Merdeka

What's Merdeka means to you?

Questions being asked over & over and published in newspapers year after year. And you got basically the same answers year after year, that too only during this period of time. 50 years ago, we are still celebrating our independence from our colonial masters. 30 years ago, we insists unity is the strength to pull us through & moving a step ahead.

Almost one decade into the new century & we're still talking about the same old story about bridging the gap between the races. Funny thing is unity seems to be only discussed during this time of the year. It's like reflecting on your love relationship with your loved ones only on Valentine Day. Reflection, should be done on daily basis & not only once a year. Making me wondering are we really that fragile that we need constant reminders about keeping united with one another. Or this is just the hype played up by the attention seeker politicians? Policymakers & those up there should be talking about the how to improve ourselves in the competitive economy etc as one nation instead of telling us to be "mindful" of way we talk, tolerance etc.

Felt sorry for those racial bigots, do continue doing with whatever ur currently doing with whatever intentions ur having. Ultimately, ur to answer to Him at the end of the day when ur time is up. God fearing Muslims call it "balasan", Buddhists call it "karma". What's up with people like me?? I'll just wait to put my opinion into ballot box in the next election meanwhile being thankful to Him for giving me the great multi racial friends. Grateful for them to recommend me the good food sold in the Ramadhan bazaar in town. Grateful for them to teach me the proper etiquette on how to eat banana leaf rice. Grateful for them to teach me how to curse in their native language.

Happy Merdeka, everyone !!!

51 Years of Progress or What??

Our nation celebrated its 51st year of independence recently on August 31. However, recent events of our politicians making fuss over racial issues in public, which completely ignored the feelings of the ordinary people like u and me. Just make everyone thinking where are we actually heading to after 51 years of so-called de-colonisation & freedom of outside interferences.
Not wanting to highlight any particular incident of so-called being insensitive to other races, the question is are we still that shallow-minded despite of 51 years of independence. Come on lahh, 51 years and those people still dont know what to speak & what not to speak, especially when ur in public? Dont ur mum teach u about adab & budi bahasa (manners & decorum)??

Nation building indeed a tough & takes long winding roads to complete it. Historical facts showed it takes generations for people mindset to change & accepting them. It takes 3 centuries for America to recognise the equal rights for the black people, thanks to a certain Martin Luther King. And now, they're having Barack Obama, an African-American as candidate for president. Does this showed our nation is still too young & our people still too naive to recognise equality among people? Will it takes us centuries for our people to start respecting each other like ur own blood? Read an article (cant remember whom) and it said something like "Our skins maybe of different colours but inside us, our blood are of same colour. Our physical bodies maybe different but our souls are one"

Glad that my life was filled with beautiful, colourful people from all walks of life. And I thanked God for letting me having these people in my life. Certainly few childish,stupid statements from some donkeys wouldnt change my thoughts that there's indeed still hope for the us. Hope for people to change. Hope for people for accept. Hope for people to learn to love & respect. And hope gotta be followed up with actions for its to be fulfilled. Question now is what can we do for a start to make a change. As said earlier in my last post, it's all starts from us. We need to make the changes ourselves by practicing ourselves. Learn to respect if u wanna be respected. Learn to care if u wanna be cared for. Learn to love if u wanna be loved. Learn to be considerate if u want others to be considerate towards u......enough said.

August Round-Up

Been a while since last time updating the blog. One blink & August is no more and September is here now. Browsing thru all the happenings in the month & there's Beijing Olympics running for almost a month, the mother of all by-elections in Permatang Pauh, Penang; Jun Tai In Yokoshi training and Merdeka day.

Opening & closing ceremonies were out of the world, as they said. Sparkling performances from athletes from multiple sports awed the world & seems as if they originated from another planet. If Michael Phelps is a country, his 8-gold performance in swimming would have put him ninth in the medal standing. And our very own Lee Chong Wei left reeling from the one-sided badminton final match loss against Lin Dan, missing out on the gold medal & the RM1 million reward. And we will need to wait another 4 years for another hope & aspiration for the precious one. Kudos for him though for bringing back the silver. Usain Bolt, mark this name now for he shall be the next athletic superstar after the legendary Carl Lewis & Michael Johnson. Astonishing world record 9.69 sec in the century dash & it could be made lower, judging from Bolt's comment "It wasn't my best performance". And sexy pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayaeva's hobby could well be breaking world records. London 2012 organising committee members will now be under pressure to match Beijing's outstanding organisational displays. And I'll be eagerly waiting if Sir Alex Ferguson actually coaches the Great Britain football team in 4 years time in Wembley.

And of cos, there's the Jun Tai In Yokoshi training held successfully over 6 days in KL Dojo with then theme "Know Yourself". Special thanks to June & Hon for their efforts during this training and not to mention, Taicho & Vice Taichos'. Personally, it was a tiring journey, having to travel everyday to KL from my working place in airport. However, upon looking at the participants' bright faces, the tiredness just went off. It has been a pleasure getting to share knowledges & experiences with those peeps. There's 6 of them. Put it this way, it was a learning journey for both leaders & members. From the activities & upon observation, each of them has shown potentials to be of someone who can contribute to society and it makes me more motivated & eager to help them to unearth their potential & eventually, getting to know themselves. Apparently, one of the member popped a question "How can I make a difference to the society when the whole world is currently full of chaos & being materialistic?" As Al Gore said in his groundbreaking presentation "An Inconvenient Truth", it all starts from us, ourselves. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King & Nelson Mandela started alone & held their beliefs despite of massive challenges & life threatening barriers. They moved & inspired people with their beliefs & actions, even if 2 of them are no longer around. It's about putting into actions what we think is right & no turning back after the first step. The only choice is to move forward.

Not talking about Merdeka (Independence Day) in August could be seen as doing injustice to the country. August 31 was the date & went to Curve the nite before for the countdown party. Honestly, the response of the nationwide celebration of the 51st Merdeka this year is rather lukewarm. No more Merdeka ads on TV, with the exception of Petronas. Hardly seen any cars flying at least the mini-national flag on road. Cant blame the people though, costs of living is increasing and we're seeing never-ending political circus going on in the local scene. And the frustrating part is no one seems to be bothering looking at the needs of the ordinary people, especially the middle class group (which forms the largest income group in the country). Who will have the mood to celebrate then? Anyway, we observed the fireworks & here posted a photo of it, which hopefully signify a spark in the local scene in the next 3 months before end of the year.