Malaysia celebrates 55 years Merdeka, a truly independence at retirement age?

Ugly two sides of a coin

Merdeka Day used to bring Malaysians together for one big do, but politics has changed all that
 

National colours, in droplets: The Malaysian flag, or Jalur Gemilang, is reflected in thousands of raindrops on a windscreen of a car during a rainy day in Kuching. It’s Aug 31 — Malaysians from all across the nation are flying the Jalur Gemilang with pride as they celebrate the 55th Merdeka Day. This photo is taken close up with a 90mm macro lense. —ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE/The Star

TODAY, Aug 31, is Merdeka Day. It’s usually an occasion celebrated with parades and speeches remembering heroes in the struggle for indedependence, marked by the singing of patriotic songs and much flag-waving.

The celebrations also generally include groups of participants in colourful traditional costumes to remind us of our rich cultural heritage and diversity.

It should be a time of reflection on what nationhood means for Malaysia and how we want our country to move forward, a time of celebrating together as Malaysians with no regard to race, religion or political affiliation.

Unfortunately, we live in such a politically-charged atmosphere, with the impending 13th general election looming over us, that even National Day has turned into an occasion for petty squabbling and the inevitable politicking.

The official theme of Janji Ditepati (Promises Fulfilled) has been met with derision by the Opposition, who claim it is an empty slogan as many Government promises have not been fulfilled.

For their part, Pakatan Rakyat leaders have said they will skip the official celebrations for their own state-level one, complete with their own theme of Senegara, Sebangsa, Sejiwa(One Country, One Nation, One Soul).



So, instead of uniting the people as befits Merdeka Day, the celebration has been split along partisan lines.

Public reaction seems to range from indifference to disdain. We’re grown weary from waiting for the polls to be called and it’s hardly surprising if people are skeptical of the endless campaigning.

Meanwhile, there’s the important matter of what Merdeka Day means for Sarawak and Sabah. On this day in 1957, it was the Federation of Malaya which gained independence from the British. Sarawak became independent on July 22 1963 and Sabah on Aug 31 1963, shortly before Malaysia came into being on Sept 16 1963.

Some quarters have raised the point that today’s celebration has no relevance to Sarawak and Sabah, and that Malaysia Day on Sept 16 should be the rightful National Day.

Coupled with this is the tricky question of whether Malaysia is 55 or 49 years old, depen-ding on whether the birth of the nation is deemed to be in 1957 or 1963.

We’re in the peculiar position whereby Malaya became independent on Aug 31 1957, but the country of Malaysia was formed on Sept 16 1963 through the merger of Malaya, Singapore (which left in 1965), Sarawak and Sabah.

For Sarawakians and Sabahans, Sept 16 is the more meaningful date because it commemorates the birth of Malaysia, a nation of which we are a part. Peninsular Malaysians need to understand this and realise why Sept 16 is important to us here.

On our part, we should accept that Aug 31 is likewise an important date for the peninsula. However, since Sept 16 is Malaysia Day, it should be given equal, if not greater prominence, than Aug 31 as a truly national celebration of our coming together as a country.

Nevertheless, as we celebrate National Day today, let us be reminded of the Proclamation of Independence read out by Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1957. It ends with the hope that the newly-independent nation “with God’s blessing shall be forever a sovereign democratic and independent state founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people and the maintenance of a just peace among all nations.”

In line with this, the Christian Federation of Malaysia’s Merdeka Day message is a timely call for Malaysians to forge ahead and invest in building a progressive and better country for all.

“In this celebratory occasion let us dream a new dream for all Malaysians. We pray to Almighty God that He will grant us a new vision of Malaysia for ourselves and all our children. We are a nation truly blessed with so much potential in our multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious communities.

“Let us mutually share all our resources, our wealth and opportunities and be a model nation to the nations around us. We can begin to do this by loving God and our neighbours as ourselves. Let us be responsible citizens of our beloved Malaysia. Let us care for those in need like the orphans and widows. May we meet the needs of the marginalised and others left by the wayside. In concert, let us jointly prosper our neighbours first.

“As Malaysians we step forward together in unity and harmony for all Malaysians and not pay heed to the strident voices of some with their narrow interests,” it said.

It also called for justice and righteousness to be upheld and for friendship, unity and harmony to be strengthened in the country.

May this be our prayer and hope for Malaysia as we celebrate this Merdeka Day.

ET CETERA By SHARON LING

 Related:

 

Get married and have babies, LKY to Singaporeans!

Migrants are a temporary solution, in the long term, mindsets must change, former PM says

Singaporeans need to marry and have children if they do not want the country to fold up, Mr Lee Kuan Yew warned on Saturday night.

In his annual National Day dinner speech to residents of Tanjong Pagar GRC and Tiong Bahru, Mr Lee kept his message on population simple: The country's citizens are not reproducing enough, and migrants are needed as a temporary solution.

But in the long run, mindsets must change, and the trend of declining birth rates needs to be reversed.

"If we go on like that, this place will fold up because there will be no original citizens left to form the majority," he said.

|And we cannot have new citizens, new PRs to settle our social ethos, our social spirit, our social norms,” he said, noting that Chinese reproduction rate is now at 1.08, Indians at 1.09 and Malays at 1.64.

“So my message is a simple one. The answer is very difficult but the problems, if we don’t find the answers, are enormous,” he added.

Lee acknowledged the pivotal role that work permit holders have played in building Singapore’s infrastructure, and the contribution of permanent residents, without which he said the country’s population would be older, smaller and would lose vitality.

Further, he noted that in the long term, Singapore’s “educated men and women must decide whether to replace themselves in the next generation”. Currently, 31 per cent of women and 41 per cent of men are choosing not to do so, he noted.

“But we’ve got to persuade people to understand that getting married is important, having children is important,” he said. “Do we want to replace ourselves or do we want to shrink and get older and be replaced by migrants and work permit holders? That’s the simple question.”

MSF to tackle problem: Chan Chun Sing

Responding to Lee’s call for solutions to Singapore’s citizen population crunch, current acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing, who will be taking on the newly-established Ministry of Social and Family development (MSF), said the latter will pursue efforts to encourage younger Singaporeans get married and start families earlier.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the same event, Chan acknowledged that the issues are “challenges that cut across different ministries”, and said there are two aspects to the population situation — material and economic, which the government will work on, reported Channel NewsAsia.

“But like what Mr Lee said, the most important aspect has to do with the less tangible... (what) we value as a society — the institution of the family,” he said as quoted by the media outlet. “How do we see the institution, and the family... these are things we really need to work on as a society because it concerns our common future.”

- The Straits Times/Asia News Network

Malaysian too distracted to be patriotic?

It may be the National Day month but most people are more preoccupied with the upcoming general election.

EVERY August, many of us look forward to the entire nation being awash with feelings of warmth and patriotism as we celebrate our National Day on the last day of the month.

Aug 31 was, until 2010, celebrated as the National Day as it was the day Malaya gained its independence from the British colonial masters, but this caused many Sabahans and Sarawakians to feel left out because their independence did not come until Sept 16, 1963.

Thus, the Government from 2010 declared that Sept 16 would also be a national holiday as it was the day Malaysia was formed – a move many Malaysians on the Borneo side of the country felt was long overdue.

So instead of a one-day National Day celebration, we now have a month-long one from Aug 16 to Sept 16. During this time Malaysians are encouraged to fly the Jalur Gemilang.

This is something that I have been doing regularly even before the call from politicians because I am a very patriotic Malaysian and unlike others I only declare myself as a Malaysian and nothing else.

However, this year I find it very difficult to bring myself to fly the flag. The amount of quarrelling and finger pointing that is going on at the moment makes it very bitter to express my patriotism.

Yes, there will be many of you who will say that the finger pointing and political posturing that’s going on at the moment are also a show of nationalism.

I do not disagree that being politically partisan is part of our democratic process but I cannot help but feel that the political temperature has gone too high for anyone to show his or her loyalty and love for the country.

From the way every act connected with the celebrations of Aug 31 and Sept 16 have been criticised and attacked on the Internet, any neutral but patriotic Malaysian will question themselves if they are being nationalistic or bias towards one side.

The way the criticisms flew when a certain logo was suggested for this 55th celebrations left many quarters stunned. It’s only a logo but yet the venom with which the attack was carried out was frightening.

Would the act of flying the Jalur Gemilang be mistaken as a symbol of support for one side or the other?

Yes, the way the Government had planned the National Day celebrations may not have been very bi-partisan with most of the programmes seemingly be centred around the achievements of the Government of the day.

Yes, the so-called 55th Merdeka song “Janji ditepati” reads like a roll call to the achievements of the Barisan Nasonal government.

But that’s what all the other 54th celebration songs, logos and themes were about – singing praises of such achievements and the 55th anniversary celebration plans are not very different.

The difference, I feel, is the heightened tension in the country stoked by the high expectation of an impending general election.

People are now too busy guessing when the general election will be held to be bothered about anything else.

Recently, there was a rumour that it would be held in September because “someone told someone” but according to the same media a few days later, it has again been “postponed” to November it seems.

Why? Because two Sabahan Barisan Nasional politicians had left their party positions to co-operate with Pakatan Rakyat.

The “jumping” of the two had been expected for over two months.

Nothing done these days is not seen to be connected to the GE 13. It does not matter whether it is the shortage of water or the call for the protection of certain environmentally sensitive places.

The problem is that politicians have been quick to jump on the bandwagon to use these issues to attack their opponents and instead of these matters being resolved, they get muddied by politics.

Politicians, regardless which side of the divide they are from, are extra sensitive during this run up to the general election. Every statement, newspaper report or social media comment which they deem as not favourable to them as made by people with an agenda against them.

Even supposed defenders of press freedom want to gag the media in case their reports do not favour their side.

The country is highly charged. Recently, it was reported that an elderly couple in Pasir Emas, Kelantan was divorcing after 14 years of marriage, the husband allegedly could no longer convince his wife to join his political party.

The 78-year-old man reportedly accused his 61-year-old religious teacher ex-wife of deviating from Islam for not supporting his party. The wife was supposed to have supported Umno while the husband was an ardent follower of PAS.

If political differences can destroy a marriage then what chance has our National Day celebrations got?

As it is, I am the only person in my multi-racial neighbourhood who bothers to fly the Jalur Gemilang come every August. I put this down to the apathy of my neighbours and the lack of patriotism due to ignorance.

They do not realise that the expression of patriotism by flying the flag is the best way to show that we are Malaysians and that nothing can take that away from us regardless of our religious or cultural backgrounds.

WHY NOT? BY WONG SAI WAN
saiwan@thestar.com.my

> Executive Editor Wong Sai Wan will not bother to dig out the old Jalur Gemilang this year – he will go buy a new one – regardless if it’s the silly election season.