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.

Being Multi Racial

"Multi-racial" has to be one of the widely used word in M'sia. It's always included in every messages by all politicians for any major occasions such as New Year, CNY, Raya, Deepavali etc etc.

Now...why am I talking about tis multi racial thingy when I'm here in M'sia, a melting pot for all cultures that u know of?? In recent times, we could hear politicians telling how can we integrate all races, uniting everyone with a single language, single aim, creating a Bangsa M'sia etc etc...Just sharing my pieces of opinions based on my personal experiences.

To create a single bangsa will take us generations to achieve it. We're just too different with our own beliefs, values etc. To follow the Indonesian concept, whereby everyone are forced to have "Indonesian names" and other languages are prohibited will be disastrous & go against what's stated in our Constitution. Instead of banging heads to come out with solutions, we should leave it as the way it is. Take a peek at the Tourism M'sia "Malaysia - Truly Asia" promo and u will understand what I'm trying to say. Diversity should be seen as a strength instead of barriers. We dun really need to be ONE to be united.

It's the basic values that need to be taught to the children by parents, educators etc. When ur loved, u will learn to love. When ur respected, u will learn to respect. When u have respect & tolerance for other people, u will get to understand the person. When all these are in places, unity will naturally follows. From primary skool up till working life, I'm pleased to have frens from all walks of life.

My recent trip to Cameron with bunch of colleagues (of different races) was a classic example (Shall talk bout the trip in next blog). Despite not knowing each other well, the trip turned out to be fun. Of cos people have certain religious or cultural restrictions that could deter our personal indulgences (eg eating pork/beef), the best thing to do is to recognise & accept. Mutual solutions can then be sorted out when we're being "sincerely frank" with each other. When we learn about give and take, personal sacrifice (eg on food) is only a minor thing to do.

Tis weekend will be eventful with me attending Emma's engagement evening function and the MU vs Gunners crunch match after that with my bunch of muhibbah frens from Fifth Formers. till then...