i blew a candle for Malaysia

My dear friend is 53 years old today, 53 is quite a long time in the lifespan of a human, but for a country, it ain't. I can proudly say i have walked hand in hand with her for 24 years now, there are so many changes happening, and have seen her indecisive between crossroads for too many times. Stories of earlier time had reached me through elder generation nap-time stories, and even though my gramps only speaks hakka (a chinese language), she was SO happy when the war was eventually over, of how she used to take my aunts n uncles down the deep drain together to avoid japanese soldiers, of how she sold vegetables in the market to all, with only talking hakka, nodding and other signs languages and of how they went through to gain independence together. She talked with such passion, that i bet even those who cant understand her would felt for her. In her, i see the Malaysian spirit, when it was first ignited, flaming so vividly.

From what i can remember as a child, the small village that i lived in (tamparuli) is absolutely serene and peaceful, where peoples went about doing their routine everyday. Although my primary school was a SJK (c), there were malays, chinese, kadazans, other natives, and mostly sino-kadazans (kadazan mix chinese). We lived happily together. due to the small number of students (total number for the school from primary 1 to 6 was 200+ back then), we stayed back every evening to play together, from the youngest to the eldest, and that was really FUN. Imagine playing police and thief with the tiny kids of primary 1 while you are primary 6, haha......laughter filled the air. My malay friends had agama lessons while we had moral class although their number was small, and during free time, we would go to the ustaz, cos he liked to amazed us with his cunning magic tricks :) And i still remmbered how the headmistress used to teach us about respecting each other, earning through hardwork, obedient to parents, and imprinted all of the good values of chinese culture in our hearts.

That was when i was way small, and as i grew up, harmony was still visible in our daily life, at least from my lense of life. All the teachers, especially the malay teachers, are very very good and thoughtful. I still remembered we had an amazing maths teacher, cikgu Fatimah, who is a left-handed, and she could really draw a perfec circle with her left hand, it shows how professional she was! haha.....she is really good...and our science teacher, Cikgu Azlina, who taught our class extra (on sex ed), haha....cos as the first class, we catch up really fast, so we were bored :P (and i still rmmber girls asking bout erections, hahaha)

Then, time passed, and i went to university (Unimas). Our class was a perfect mixture of students, and im really grateful for that. Everyone mixed around, having fun, going out for the late night movies, go bazaar and did so many wonderful things together. It was in university when we get our first glance of the world we will be stepping in in the future. University is a miniature of our society. But if that was how our society is structured, i would really liked it :) We played lanterns together during mooncake festivals, went parading during Independence day, enjoyed Ponggal nite show together, browsing through amazing foods during ramadhan, and went food hunting n visiting during Aidilfitri (i missed kek lapis, huhu).... and all along the years, i've been thinking  " what a small wonderful world we have here"  :)

AND, i stepped into peninsular, studying here for 1 and a half year. And during these times, so many problems arised. Economic crisis, food crisis, petrol crisis, racial crisis, language crisis, environmental crisis........ and all along i thought Malaysians are moving on fine? Most of the problems have really SIMPLE solutions, solutions that even normal people like you and i can think about. I have been raised to view Malaysia beautifully, never from this different angle before. What's my reaction? hmm......first i was shocked, then i starts to think of solutions for most of the problems, and it seemed most of it have simple and feasible solutions. Our country's glow is slowly fading, even her pristine nature side have been stripped of by money-minded irresponsible malaysians. Its time to turn words into solid actions.

and coming back, its her birthday today, no sad stories, sorry, hehe........so, let us all make a list of wishes and blew a candle for her today, Long live Malaysia :)

1. I wish for children to be treated fairly, beyond the grasps of political and racial issues.
2. I wish for peace and harmony in Malaysia.
3. I wish for a better tomorrow, where smiles and laughter would replace curses and vulgar words.
4. I wish for happiness for all Malaysians :)
5. I wish for long lasting friendships among us.
6. I wish for kindness and love in each and everyone of us.
7. I wish for truthfulness and transparency in our daily dealings.
8. I wish for respect and care for all races.
9. I wish for environment-consciousness in all, think about our future generation before taking action.


and i wished that when i open my eyes, my wishes would not just be wishes anymore
happy birthday once again, Malaysia, proud to be Malaysian :)