Misty-eyed over Merdeka
Saturday, September 8, 2007
AN UNUSUAL thing happened to me last week. The boss asked us at The Star Online if we could put up the video clip of Tunku Abdul Rahman,s declaration of Merdeka (Malay for independence) on the website, timing it to appear throughout Aug 31.
You are familiar with the footage, no doubt. You've seen it and heard its resounding cry here, there and everywhere for the past 50 years.
Merdeka!
Declared over and over again by a man whose ideals, and those of his contemporaries and predecessors in the struggle for Independence, were the foundation of our nation.
Still, I was apprehensive at first.
Lets put it this way: in the past, we've posted video and audio clips or rich media ads and had to weather complaints from users who were annoyed, irritated or just plain shocked by having stuff blaring from their PC speakers without warning.
We decided to go ahead with it anyway, as those who visited The Star Online on Aug 31 would have noticed.
When the tech guys submitted the test link for me to go over, that's when it happened.
I loaded the test page and the video played in a little window embedded where our World Updates usually are.
While viewing the test clip, a wave of emotion overcame me and I couldn't help but get a little misty-eyed. OK, more than a little.
Something about that old footage just touched me profoundly and made me realise there was still a lot of room in my heart of the Spirit of Merdeka.
It was a surprising realisation, given my frustration with the way certain things have been going around here.
The racially divisive remarks, religious sensitivity (and excessive sensitivity), the suggestion that not going through certain motions makes you unpatriotic, the rising crime rate, the seeming indifference of higher powers to the plight of the folks on the ground, the apathy up and down (and all around) towards things that can be changed if only we put a little more effort into it ? To be honest, I didn't really feel like the 50th anniversary of Merdeka was approaching until that Wednesday.
Writing a column that frequently looks at how unreal things can get, does that to you.
The cynical view of it may be that the emotions I felt were for the things we perceive to be in danger of vanishing: mutual trust and respect, a feeling of safety when you step out of the house, a comfortable buffer in the bank account, the confidence that the Federal Constitution will always be upheld for the good of all.
But nope, my emotions were fuelled by the realisation that the Spirit of Merdeka is far stronger and much broader in meaning and scope than the narrow view of it that is held by some parties.
If there are 27 million Malaysians, there are 27 million different incarnations of that spirit.
Its not something that is easy to define. Perhaps it is this very elusiveness, its reluctance to be pigeonholed and hammered into a compliant shape, its ability to dwell in every heart and shape itself to the peculiarities and uniqueness of its domicile, that keeps it alive and strong.
And it will live and thrive as long as pride can swell in our hearts, and hope for the future spring eternal, through our appreciation of the symbols that represent us; the milestones that mark our progress; and our qualities as a nation.
The spirit dwells in a place that divisive politicians (you know who you are ... the mirror will remind you), resentful outsiders (literal as well as figurative ones) and selfish insiders (from rasuah receivers to road hogs) cannot touch it or hurt it beyond its capacity to heal.
I base this on my particular awakening to the fact that this 50-year-old footage can still affect me so profoundly.
I base it on the realisation that, having read the newspapers' Merdeka supplements, the blog postings, the letters pages of the newspapers and watched the TV coverage as well as the run-up, there are a lot more of Us than there are of Them.
I don't usually like to get into the whole Us vs Them thing or decide that one group is any more right-thinking than another; but hey, to turn the cliche{aac} against the perpetrators, they started it.
And they know who are they are: The all too vocal minority that complains about things like Gwen Stefani concerts but ignores much larger and more pressing social issues; the ones who get upset and blustery when someone raises a pertinent but uncomfortable question; the ones who play to the gallery to stir up emotions and support but fail to realise what consequences their actions have on everyone else; the ones who are elected to serve but think their right is to command and plunder.
Soon, there may be an opportunity for us to even cross some of them out of our lives for a good long while (say, five years at least).
What we need, perhaps, to keep from losing the liberties that our forebears fought for, to keep from losing our cohesion as a people, is to make our voices be heard louder than the divisive and self-serving ones.
There's no time like today to send that message, so while the Spirit of Merdeka has a hold of us all; do your bit today.
And maybe then, those unpleasant forces will hear our own declaration and will get this message as loud and clear as if someone had yelled Merdeka! into their ears through a megaphone from two feet away.
Podah. Chow lah. Berambus. Get lost. We are here, we are one, we won't go away. The Star/ANN
You are familiar with the footage, no doubt. You've seen it and heard its resounding cry here, there and everywhere for the past 50 years.
Merdeka!
Declared over and over again by a man whose ideals, and those of his contemporaries and predecessors in the struggle for Independence, were the foundation of our nation.
Still, I was apprehensive at first.
Lets put it this way: in the past, we've posted video and audio clips or rich media ads and had to weather complaints from users who were annoyed, irritated or just plain shocked by having stuff blaring from their PC speakers without warning.
We decided to go ahead with it anyway, as those who visited The Star Online on Aug 31 would have noticed.
When the tech guys submitted the test link for me to go over, that's when it happened.
I loaded the test page and the video played in a little window embedded where our World Updates usually are.
While viewing the test clip, a wave of emotion overcame me and I couldn't help but get a little misty-eyed. OK, more than a little.
Something about that old footage just touched me profoundly and made me realise there was still a lot of room in my heart of the Spirit of Merdeka.
It was a surprising realisation, given my frustration with the way certain things have been going around here.
The racially divisive remarks, religious sensitivity (and excessive sensitivity), the suggestion that not going through certain motions makes you unpatriotic, the rising crime rate, the seeming indifference of higher powers to the plight of the folks on the ground, the apathy up and down (and all around) towards things that can be changed if only we put a little more effort into it ? To be honest, I didn't really feel like the 50th anniversary of Merdeka was approaching until that Wednesday.
Writing a column that frequently looks at how unreal things can get, does that to you.
The cynical view of it may be that the emotions I felt were for the things we perceive to be in danger of vanishing: mutual trust and respect, a feeling of safety when you step out of the house, a comfortable buffer in the bank account, the confidence that the Federal Constitution will always be upheld for the good of all.
But nope, my emotions were fuelled by the realisation that the Spirit of Merdeka is far stronger and much broader in meaning and scope than the narrow view of it that is held by some parties.
If there are 27 million Malaysians, there are 27 million different incarnations of that spirit.
Its not something that is easy to define. Perhaps it is this very elusiveness, its reluctance to be pigeonholed and hammered into a compliant shape, its ability to dwell in every heart and shape itself to the peculiarities and uniqueness of its domicile, that keeps it alive and strong.
And it will live and thrive as long as pride can swell in our hearts, and hope for the future spring eternal, through our appreciation of the symbols that represent us; the milestones that mark our progress; and our qualities as a nation.
The spirit dwells in a place that divisive politicians (you know who you are ... the mirror will remind you), resentful outsiders (literal as well as figurative ones) and selfish insiders (from rasuah receivers to road hogs) cannot touch it or hurt it beyond its capacity to heal.
I base this on my particular awakening to the fact that this 50-year-old footage can still affect me so profoundly.
I base it on the realisation that, having read the newspapers' Merdeka supplements, the blog postings, the letters pages of the newspapers and watched the TV coverage as well as the run-up, there are a lot more of Us than there are of Them.
I don't usually like to get into the whole Us vs Them thing or decide that one group is any more right-thinking than another; but hey, to turn the cliche{aac} against the perpetrators, they started it.
And they know who are they are: The all too vocal minority that complains about things like Gwen Stefani concerts but ignores much larger and more pressing social issues; the ones who get upset and blustery when someone raises a pertinent but uncomfortable question; the ones who play to the gallery to stir up emotions and support but fail to realise what consequences their actions have on everyone else; the ones who are elected to serve but think their right is to command and plunder.
Soon, there may be an opportunity for us to even cross some of them out of our lives for a good long while (say, five years at least).
What we need, perhaps, to keep from losing the liberties that our forebears fought for, to keep from losing our cohesion as a people, is to make our voices be heard louder than the divisive and self-serving ones.
There's no time like today to send that message, so while the Spirit of Merdeka has a hold of us all; do your bit today.
And maybe then, those unpleasant forces will hear our own declaration and will get this message as loud and clear as if someone had yelled Merdeka! into their ears through a megaphone from two feet away.
Podah. Chow lah. Berambus. Get lost. We are here, we are one, we won't go away. The Star/ANN
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