2 posts tagged “merdeka”
I'm a great admirer of Mohd Nor Khalid the Malaysian cartoonist more popularly known as Lat, short for "bulat" or round in Malay. Lat's cartoons perfectly captures the many idiosyncrasies of Malaysians and day to day Malaysian life in way that reminds us that we should be able to laugh at ourselves, not to take ourselves too seriously and more importantly, that we have more in common with each other than we would like to admit.
In these politically divisive times in Malaysia, Lat succeeds in communicating via his simple cartoons things that unite us as Malaysians - sports, food, friendship, music and plain ol' good humour. Most of all, Lat's cartoons are also political commentaries on the hot issues of the day and I think it's because his brand of humour is so gentle that it would take a supremely thin skinned person to be offended with his politically inspired cartoons.
This Merdeka, I think Pos Malaysia should commemorate Lat with a series of stamps show casing the best of his work depicting Malaysians in all their idiosyncratic glory. That would be money, effort and time better spent than on erecting billboards reminding us to be "grateful" (cringe) to our leaders for their "sacrifices" (yeah I guess it's real tough to perform your job if you have to commute in a Mercedes Benz).
I'm not a fan of Air Asia, but I'm happy that some of their planes have Lat cartoons painted on the body of the air craft. What a great way to showcase the works of a real Malaysian icon all over the world.
It's hard not to notice them; the many billboards along the roads with the faces of all the Prime Ministers of Malaysia, saying that we should be grateful for their sacrifices made for the country. What about the contribution of the many ordinary Malaysia people - read tax payers? How come nobody is celebrating the collective contributions of the citizens of this country who have brought it to where it is today? Not a peep, which means to say that we're not important enough to be recognised. It riles me to no end to see inanely meaningless billboards which tout "Malaysia Gemilang". Gemilang for what? For falling standards in education? For increasing crime and corruption? For getting our priorities all screwed up - we have money to splash on a needless exercise to send someone to space to make teh tarik but the funds are somehow not available to make schools safe so that teachers don't crash through the ceilings of upper floors....
Despite the countdown to August 31 by the media to celebrate our 50 years as a sovereign country, I can't help but feel that there's not very much to celebrate or to be proud of as a nation. Fifty years of anything is always a milestone to commemorate, but I don't think there're many positive things to celebrate in Malaysia as things stand today. The main reason for my lack, or actually, absence of enthusiasm to celebrate this Merdeka, is that looking back from where we came from, this country has regressed in critical areas like race relations, religious freedom and the judicial independence. People are less tolerant and accepting these days compared to the days of my grandfather. The races seem to mix less and are more suspicious of each other. It doesn't help to have a heap of half baked, lobotomised and hypocritical politicians who pay lip service to the importance of racial harmony but have no qualms to score cheap political points in playing the race or religious card whenever they think it's expedient to do so.
I remember an old Malay gentlemen who was my late grandfather's friend and lived a couple of houses from my home. His name was Yusuf and he came from a world which has been swallowed by the tide of religious intolerance. Like my grandfather, Yusuf served in the army in World War 2 and was quite an anglophile. Many years ago, I remember my family invited Yusuf to our reunion dinner during Chinese New Year, simply because he had nowhere to go and nothing to do. By this time, Yusuf was already in his late 70's, but still lucid and sprightly. Before the dinner, my grandpa informed my grandma who was in charge of cooking the reunion dinner, that Yusuf was coming to dinner and to have some non-pork dishes prepared. It was so nice to have Yusuf join in our reunion dinner - our family is very small and untraditional, so we usually have friends over during such dinners. He didn't make an issue that we had pork and chicken dishes on the dinner table, although we ensured that we put the chicken dishes right in front of him. He didn't insist that he bring his own set of cutlery because our kitchen was not halal-ised. Much to our surprised he asked whether he could have a drop of whiskey as well to join in the celebration. Reading recently about some religious leader's instruction to Muslims not to attend non-Muslims' open house celebrations is a painfully jarring contrast to people of Yusuf's generation who came from a more easy going time and were able celebrate the diversity of our differences.
I remember than not so long ago, I came across an exhibition of old photographs from the 1940's - 1960's from the archives of the New Straits Times at a mall. Looking at those photos, many of which captured the innocence and hope of a young nation amongst the earnest faces of the different races photographed together moved me to feel more affinity for this country. Where did we go wrong between those early days and now? Where did we fuck up so badly that we find ourselves in this rut? Why do Malaysians vote the same unworthy politicians into office every general election?
