Selamat Merdeka to all Malaysians. August 31st 1957 Tunku Abdul Rahman the founding father of our nation announced our independence from the United Kingdom. It was a day of celebration for all Malayans. We were not Malaysia yet, but our dreams were bold and ambitious, our hearts pure and full. Tunku was a true leader, someone who walked the talk without a hint of hypocrisy. He lead a team of nation builders that put this country and the welfare of ALL its people ahead of everything else. Malaya would soon join with Sabah and Sarawak (and briefly with Singapore). On September 16th, we will celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Malaysia, when our Brothers and Sisters from Sabah and Sarawak joined us, and thank God, as I believe they will save us from ourselves. For today, allow me to repeat things I have already written as it is still so relevant, if not more so today. Because today, it grieves me that our dreams seem stifled, our hears not so full and far less pure, and our politicians merely politicians, not nation builders, and not leaders of Men. Its Hari Merdeka. 57 years ago we became a sovereign nation. But we are not free yet. We are not free from the baggage of racial mistrust, religious dogmatism and intellectual corruption. We sell our souls for position as we attempt to sell our countrys future for instant gratification. We have been and continue to be smothered by what seems constant scandals and racial political grandstanding. And in the last year, the lowest of of our political monkeys like to bring up the spectre of the famous race riots that we painfully survived more than four decades ago. So today lets look back at May 13 1969. My father was very close to Tun Dr, ismail and Tun Razak - and I have heard from him many many stories of that period. And here is the thing, far from being the day that showed the worst of Malaysia, I believe the opposite to be true. There were villains everywhere. Malays, Chinese, and Indians. No single race has a monopoly on evil. The riots were political. Instigated and propelled by a few. And all parties had a hand in it, and all parties took advantage of it. A few hundred people went crazy, and so many innocent people lost their lives -- but thousands of Malaysians protected each other. Malays took in chinese families into their homes, Chinese families took in Malays. Indian bosses would swap with their drivers as they drove down certain areas of KL. That is now what I see when I think of 1969. Not the evil of the few, but the Malaysian spirit that existed in the tens of thousands of this great country, that drove them to protect and care for each other. That spirit is still alive, perhaps a little battered, but very much alive. And we have to nurse it back to health. We, the Malaysian people are the only ones that can. We must protect the Malaysian soul from all enemies foreign and domestic. And when we all can truly stand up for each other, defend each others beliefs even if they differ from our own, defend each others rights, and finally accept that singularly plural Malaysian identity - then we will truly be free. So for now, there is work to be done. I love my country, I love its people, i love its smell, its food, its weather. There is no country like it on earth. Selamat Hari Merdeka my friends. I am Malay, I am Sabahan, I am Indian, I am Sarawakian, I am Chinese, I am Eurasian - You are me, I am you - and together we will dream again, we will fill our hearts again, we will inspire again. Together there is nothing we cannot do, because together WE ARE MALAYSIA. Vinod Sekhar .
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 07:49:38 +0000
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