Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka (2009)

 

SEPT 2 — This week was an anniversary week, a week of remembrances and of forgetting. It was a rainy week, one in which Malaysians should have been proudly united in their Malaysianess, but, instead, sidestepped back into divisiveness and racial disharmony. It was a week, when Malaysians recalled, with heartfelt pride, the hour when Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abul Rahman shouted, in sheer joy — Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka after the country finally gaining its independence from British colonial rule. This anniversary was to be a proud day, a day when, this week, the nation celebrated 52 years of ‘freedom’ from those dastardly British, yet seemingly are unperturbed by the increasing, covert colonisation by American popular culture . It was a bizarre week, a pythonesque week. It was a week, when the ghosts of the Monty Python team seemed to linger heavy footed, performing ghostly dances and funny walks in the air. In addition, if you listened attentively, you could practically discern John Cleese emoting — well, what have the British ever done for us, with the identical reply the People’s Front of Judea gave in the film “The Life of Brian”. It was a superbly ironic week. A week in which the majority of Malaysia was celebrating having finally got rid of its British colonisers, and Malacca, daring to be different, was busy celebrating 500 years since the arrival, not departure, of the Portuguese. The celebration was, apparently, to rejoice in the Portuguese heritage still evident in Malaysia — should you care to seek it. Moreover, elsewhere in the country, street names may have been changed to mask the reality of a colonial past, and building’s names altered, but Malacca continued, and continues to demonstrate a pride in its unique living heritage, and its lingering Portuguese genes. Very much in the spirit of not defining Malaysians by what they are not, i.e. ruled by colonisers, the controversial current Prime Minister has fostered the grand concept of 1 Malaysia, no doubt appearing to seek to unite all Malaysians in their oneness. Some sceptical people say that he does this with his fingers crossed firmly behind his back. Yet, in this anniversary week, and reader, what a week it has been, it has been well and truly demonstrated, in our wonderful country, that not everyone in Malaysia is on the same page, singing from the same hymn sheet or indeed speaking with one voice. This week, the powers that be at Pos Malaysia issued its 1 Malaysia stamps, and, it has to be said, some of the most banal philatelic designs ever. The half-heartedness of the designs — idiotically grinning egg people in a mock rendering of the Japanese special folder IYC Year of the Child (1976) stamps, only add to the general impression of fiddling while Rome/KL burns. It is sad, is it not, that when Malaysia has so many impressive artists and designers, who are constantly producing innovative and meaningful art works – grinning egg people is all Pos Malaysia can come up with to celebrate their P.M’s notion of 1 Malaysia, but there again, maybe that is appropriate. While Pos Malaysia produced egg people, others went out of their way to demonstrate just how disparate Malaysia really is, despite the P.M. calling for racial unity. They, perhaps inadvertently, revealed the egg people to be Humpty Dumpty, with a dangerously thin shell and a very high wall. The grossly misnamed Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture, which evidently uses Orwell’s 1984 as its departmental manual, had decided that 1 Malaysia should be re-written as 2 Malaysia, that is — Muslims and everybody else. Working hard to this end the M of ICC had, in their infinite wisdom, banned all Muslims in Malaysia from attending the Black-eyed Peas concert, due to be held in Sunway Lagoon, in September - clearly demonstrating the will to perpetuate a continuing religious divide — a US (Muslims) and THEM (everyone else) attitude, amidst their very antiquated, religious apartheid, woolly thinking. It is, however, quite ironic that the reason given for stopping adult Muslims enjoying this concert is that Guinness (the infamous Black and White) backs it, which, the M of ICC say, is evidently not good for you. In retaliation the website for Guinness’s ‘Arthur’s Day’ celebrations, on its initial page, asks “Are you a non-Muslim aged 18 years and above” before you can proceed into the site itself. (In a recent climb down and an update, restrictions seemingly have been lifted, last minute, from the Black-eyed Peas concert and now all adults, regardless of their religious affiliations (over 18) may attend.) One therefore wonders if this is a triumph of good sense over bigotry, or commercial pressure and the ever-present power of the dollar. Yet I still remain bemused, because as many as four adverts, for all kinds of alcoholic beverages are permitted to be shown before the main film, in cinemas across our beloved country, even when films are specifically targeted at the country’s young. But then, I suppose, showing grinning faces of people in the midst of alcohol consumption to children, and telling them that alcohol is good, fun, stylish, is ok, but Guinness sponsoring a concert where no alcohol will be served is not — how odd. As Bart might say — “Don’t have a cow, man”. Yet, to further illustrate that some small bigoted groups still exist in this multicultural nation of ours, and to demonstrate a continuing religious divide, emphasising this nation’s disparateness and gross intolerance, some 50 bull-headed residents of section 23 Shah Alam, demonstrated against a new Hindu temple being built in their area, by dragging a bloody cow’s head through the streets. Long live tolerance and togetherness. It seems that not only is two Malaysia being promoted over one Malaysia, but the two in question is two fingers held aloft in the legendary English bowmen’s salute to the defeated French, and the one Malaysia is in fact one middle digit raised from a fist, knuckles outward. 

 THIS IS THE FINAL ARTICLE FOR THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER, (please address all queries regarding the cessation of this column to The Malaysian Insider)