Merdeka 2009 Series: The Gen-Y Foundation

Seven days before Merdeka '09

By Lee Wei Lian

AUG 31 — At last Monday's mid-morning meeting, The Malaysian Insiders were tasked with writing a commentary about Merdeka. It was also assumed then that the fasting month would be dry in terms of news and we'd be hit by the journalistic equivalent of the global economic slowdown. But, as they say, the best-laid plans and all that.

The same day, Kartika happened. This Malay girl from Perak made global headlines and became one of the top five most popular stories on BBC and CNN, causing Women's Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil to wring her hands in worry that Malaysia would be labelled as a "fanatical" Muslim country.

Then MCA, a Chinese party despised by many if not most Chinese, decided that it would be a good time to plunge into one of its trademark leadership crises, with the Ong-Chua factions going toe to toe in a fight which some say may well be their last.

Then on Friday, Selangor's capital Shah Alam, which seems to be the new epicentre of ethno-religious earthquakes, shook the nation yet again with a nasty quarrel over a Hindu temple that involved threats of bloodshed and a decapitated cow head, possibly covered with dusty shoe prints.

And all this happening against a backdrop of political intrigue including deaths, power grab conspiracies, corruption scandals, soaring crime, racial and religious baiting and disappointing economic, social and academic conditions.

I met an old friend midway through the week, who was taking a break from a year-long project in London. He works for a large multinational and is actually based out of Malaysia but his business unit is being transferred to Madrid, Spain in October, yet another sign of the fluid, global nature of economies today.

"Look at what's happening in Malaysia," he sighed while shaking his head and sipping his Starbucks coffee. I could only nod. What was there to say?

Logging into my e-mail later, I scrolled through a barrage of messages from my primary school classmates.

They were commenting on a Standard Three class picture posted on Facebook, performing an online brain-link in order to put a name to each of the cherubic faces surrounding the teacher.

The photo was posted by a Malay classmate who was daughter to a Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka official, hence her archival skills. I recall that even the story books she lent me were stamped with her family library chop.

"Thanks everyone for those names! Takde gambar2 lain ke?" she typed. Obviously, the answer was no.

The names of my ex-classmates — Natasya, Wai Cheng, Jason, Illyas, Ilham, Jon Wei — are a delicious aural rojak of Malay and Chinese, but perhaps as a portend of the future of Sekolah Kebangsaans, no Indians.

The banter was light, the Malaysian co-operation impressive.

"Only four names left guys!" exhorted one of the 84 comments.

Back to today, Malaysia's 52nd Merdeka anniversary — a marker which sees the country older but evidently not really the wiser.

Unlike a bottle of fine cincaluk, we as a nation have not aged well.

For 52 years, like the past seven days, Malaysians have had to bear more sorrow, fear and heartache than it should have had to. Nobody knows what the future holds.

But I'd like to think there's a chance the next half century will be different — like my Standard Three class but even better — a time and place where race and religion meant something but at the same time nothing, and the future looked as glorious as the golden sunshine during recess.

Article source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/36443-seven-days-before-merdeka-09