Malaysia 50 years of Independance

I love history. I got A2 for my Sejarah in SPM by studying half asleep on the bed (and sometimes dozed off). I know I scored nicely for the objective questions while barely survived the essays, because the questions are not too much different from the workbooks.

Well, on the 31st August 1957 Malaya got her independance from the British colonization after at least 200 years of rule, which is the last one after Portugese and Dutch. Before Independance, 'Malaysia' had suffered and struggled internally and externally. (Note: Federation of Malaysia on 16th September 1963)

First, talking about natural resources being eroded. Students in the classroom today would just know from the textbook that Malaysia was a great tin, copper, gold, petrol, timber, cocoa, rubber etc exporter. However, when these commodities were being exported, who earned? Us? No...the colony master and it's cronies did. And now, our natural resources are depleting soon.

Second, power struggles everywhere which involves foreign help (and this is BAD). Because Sultans were suppressed, races live apart from each other, resentments and pemberontak everywhere. Japanese invasions, communist rising and people not united. It's like pots of bees being released to stung. I think it's hard la...lucky i wasnt' born yet. [although power struggles are still happening (human nature)].

Third, remember Ganyang Malaysia? And all those MAPHILINDO efforts...we are truly blessed that Malaysia still survive after that. And yes, May 13th. After reading the book, I understand why a lot people would say West M'sians are more divided than East M'sia. It's not that we cannot be united at all, but they have experienced the incident that we did not. Thankfully, I was born in East M'sia.

The struggles to form a good government, in the Alliance (now known as BN) the ups and downs of Dato' Onn Jaafar and Tunku Abdul Rahman. I would say, not easy lah...given so many misunderstandings between people.

You know, after listening to the national anthem, Terang Bulan and Mamula Moon, reminiscing historical site and museums I've visited, and reading some blogs....our Independance is somewhat a romantic one. Terang Bulan is a sweet song, resembles the classic Malays and reminds me of some P.Ramlee old movies too. I suppose that Raja Abdullah who was exiled at that time in Seychelles, truly missed Tanah Melayu.

Why romantic? My opinion only, the country and the people within were in a love-hate relationship when towards Independance. When i watched Taiwan's idol drama (Korean drama also) love-hate relationship always turn out to be the sweetest one. It's like either the girl or guy hates the other (A and B), and they keep on sabotaging each other, but one day suddenly 2 of them will fall in love and both will continue to live in denial for a while, until they have to admit it. There'll be people who will support their relationship and people who want to tear them apart. When people are trying to tear them apart, I always wanted to run amok in the screen and give these few fellas a good knock on the head, but when this action is made impossible I had to resist throwing pillows towards the computer screen...coz it was my beloved laptop! During the scenes of love-hate, certain small gestures of A and B towards each other makes the world a lot difference. Eg: B helping A up after a fall from the bike with slight eye contact, hou lam ar!!!.

This is how the people were when trying to gain Independance. You know, you're in a love-hate but you want to be free from colony. After a while of sabotaging, certain misunderstandings will remain. So i guess it takes time for a relationship to become stronger and it depends on the will of the parties whether they want to really pursue it or not. Granting of citizenship to immigrants at that time and these immigrants recognising 'special position' is a start of small gesture in accepting one another (although this won't make me feel lam ). However, usually in such drama series, we have happy endings and girls watching it will always end up fantasizing for at least a month if they have no other series to catch up on.

What then is the conclusion of our Independance?

Rome is not built in one day, so is our country. When I went overseas for visits, I do think about why our country cannot be like this country here, so clean so organized so discipline. But when I look at where these people stay, then i said to myself:"okay, my house is better". See, there's no other place better than home (home is where the place you regard it to be). At least most of us here have roofs under our heads. 31st August is a celebration of decolonization and when we truly have a recognized independant and democratic political government free from foreign power, let's not jeopardize it.