I was humming excitedly while thinking of how significant this years Merdeka celebrations would be for Malaysians around the world. It was only a day later, that we Malaysians in London got the chance to celebrate 50 years of Merdeka (Independence) at the Merdeka Carnival 2007 and here I was, as usual, in a frenzy looking for something to wear AND attempting to make it on time for the opening down on the premises of the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in Brickendonbury. By the time I put on my sexy black boots, and braved a horrific traffic jam, I finally arrived one hour twenty minutes after the opening ceremony. *sigh*
A buzz of activities welcomed me when I stepped onto the lush grounds of the Mansion and the familiar smell of satay wafted through the air. Great! It was bad enough that I could barely squeeze into my *oh so* short denim skirt, I was definitely going to pack on the pounds that fateful day. There were food stalls as far as the eye could see and I had already made a severe promise to myself that I would not settle my fluctuating weight problems by buying clothes a dress size bigger.
First stop - the keropok leko stall, second stop - the roti canai stall, third stop - the kuey teow stall…geez, I quickly caught myself from mentally listing the numerous never ending food stalls I wanted to raid, and started my slow crawl around this side of the lawn away from the sinful scrumptious stalls. I stumbled upon ONE souvenir stall selling merchandise (t-shirts, keychains, raya cards), the MAS stall, the Awana or was it the Holiday Inn stall which also sold the ‘magic’ karaoke microphone, durian ice cream *yummy* and some Malaysian fruits. There was the F1 stall and there was the Malaysian Spices and Herbs stall, which much to my delight, was full of Babas curry powder *woohoo*!
So, around 10 non-food stalls, the stage, a handful of LCD plasma screens, countless food stalls…and that ladies and gentlemen, was what summed up our Merdeka celebrations here in sunny London, hmmm, and I almost forgot, our beloved Jalur Gemilang waving proudly in the slight end-of-summer breeze.
To tell you the honest truth, when I had first arrived, my tummy had already cleverly negotiated with my brain and I was completely content with this whole Merdeka Carnival arrangement. I was literally blinded by the sight of glorious food and was going to sing praises of the food, I mean, merdeka celebrations in London.
Until, my friend’s son tugged on my skirt and *God have mercy on my red stilettos* asked me in his polished London accent, “Aunty, what is this whole Merdeka Carnival about? What is Merdeka?” I nearly choked on my jagung bakar. When did they start becoming so smart and ask mind-boggling questions like these. After five minutes of explaining, and realising that his completely blank look was NOT a look of quiet concentration, I pulled him to the nearest plasma screen where he could take a quick look at the short video made by the organisers about Merdeka. It was difficult to actually stand there and concentrate on what was being said ‘cos you had to literally strain your ears to hear anything. We both decidedly gave up, after his attention was diverted by the sight of his brothers jumping up and down on the bouncy castle nearby.
After being ditched by the young gentleman, I found a spot on the lawn and took a quick look at the souvenir programme. Apparently I hadn’t missed much of the opening ceremony, or what little there was of it. There was the raising of Jalur Gemilang, the official opening of the event, the PM’s recorded message then we had Fairuz Fauzy (the young F1 lad) giving a talk on his racing career. Hmm, I respect FF, but really, what did he actually have to do with the real meaning of Merdeka and why was he placed right after the PM’s recorded message?
The rest of the programme included a lion dance, a performance by a local English band, an ever present karaoke contest, a performance by a Malaysian group who is based in England, a sitar performance, as well as the usual raffle draw - but nothing extraordinary for such and auspicious occasion. The only highlight, if there was any, was Shahrizan belting out some soulful jazz numbers and oh yeah, of course the food.
Please, don’t get me wrong, the carnival wasn’t horrible it’s just that it kinda lacked substance. I mean this should have been a full fledged well thought out Merdeka Carnival that oozed semangat anak bangsa Malaysia (the true Malaysian spirit) and executed with the same precision as Blahnik put into the Masai,1997, but instead we were welcomed by a scene akin a mediocre hari kantin affair which you would commonly visit at a Malaysian high school.
Aiseyman, what happened? I mean, first of all, we’re celebrating 50 years of nationhood, I mean 50 years, not two, not ten but 50 years. Second of all, we’re celebrating this auspicious event here in London, the very country we sought independence from.
Is that what the organisers think Merdeka is? Was there not any other way to present our identity, not only to Malaysians living abroad but also the locals and other foreigners alike. Are we incapable of even conjuring a proper identity because we don’t have one? Or is it the incapability of our organisers to properly invoke something worthwhile? I really hope it’s not the latter cos I took a look at the committee list, and boy it was as neverending as the food stalls.
When asked why the days activities were lacking, a committee member replied, “The budget was only approved in July, so we couldn’t do much.” I was completely gobsmacked, it felt like a backhand slap to my hot pink lip glossed face. It sounded as lame an excuse as the infamous, “My dog ate my homework” line.
Whilst trying to recover from the nonchalant answer, I started hacking away at my Air Batu Campur (ABC) and found myself thinking, yet again, is this what the organisers think? Have we been whittled down to a food loving society that has nothing else to offer? I mean food is a great thing, and definitely a plus point in the Malaysian culture, but is that our best foot forward? Is that even the foot that we want to put forward? Aren’t the organisers proud of the Malaysian badge? Couldn’t they have put more thought into what it is to be an anak bangsa Malaysia? How and what it feels to celebrate 50 years of nationhood? Weren’t they enthusiastic to announce to everyone out there, where Malaysia is heading, our vision for the next 50 years? To share with the world who Malaysia is and above all, who her people are?
Or is it because, our organisers themselves don’t have a slingback shoe idea of what should be shouted out to the world?
As I came to the last bits of my ABC, my mind thought about our dear Tunku Abdul Rahman. I thought about how excited he must’ve been when he first proclaimed Merdeka at Dataran Merdeka all those years ago. Isn’t it a shame that not all of us feel the same way? I hope that sometime in the near future, this semangat Malaysia will be reignited with the same passion that he announced those magical words, “Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!”
Selamat Merdeka Malaysia – all my love - anak bangsa Malaysia!
A buzz of activities welcomed me when I stepped onto the lush grounds of the Mansion and the familiar smell of satay wafted through the air. Great! It was bad enough that I could barely squeeze into my *oh so* short denim skirt, I was definitely going to pack on the pounds that fateful day. There were food stalls as far as the eye could see and I had already made a severe promise to myself that I would not settle my fluctuating weight problems by buying clothes a dress size bigger.
First stop - the keropok leko stall, second stop - the roti canai stall, third stop - the kuey teow stall…geez, I quickly caught myself from mentally listing the numerous never ending food stalls I wanted to raid, and started my slow crawl around this side of the lawn away from the sinful scrumptious stalls. I stumbled upon ONE souvenir stall selling merchandise (t-shirts, keychains, raya cards), the MAS stall, the Awana or was it the Holiday Inn stall which also sold the ‘magic’ karaoke microphone, durian ice cream *yummy* and some Malaysian fruits. There was the F1 stall and there was the Malaysian Spices and Herbs stall, which much to my delight, was full of Babas curry powder *woohoo*!
So, around 10 non-food stalls, the stage, a handful of LCD plasma screens, countless food stalls…and that ladies and gentlemen, was what summed up our Merdeka celebrations here in sunny London, hmmm, and I almost forgot, our beloved Jalur Gemilang waving proudly in the slight end-of-summer breeze.
To tell you the honest truth, when I had first arrived, my tummy had already cleverly negotiated with my brain and I was completely content with this whole Merdeka Carnival arrangement. I was literally blinded by the sight of glorious food and was going to sing praises of the food, I mean, merdeka celebrations in London.
Until, my friend’s son tugged on my skirt and *God have mercy on my red stilettos* asked me in his polished London accent, “Aunty, what is this whole Merdeka Carnival about? What is Merdeka?” I nearly choked on my jagung bakar. When did they start becoming so smart and ask mind-boggling questions like these. After five minutes of explaining, and realising that his completely blank look was NOT a look of quiet concentration, I pulled him to the nearest plasma screen where he could take a quick look at the short video made by the organisers about Merdeka. It was difficult to actually stand there and concentrate on what was being said ‘cos you had to literally strain your ears to hear anything. We both decidedly gave up, after his attention was diverted by the sight of his brothers jumping up and down on the bouncy castle nearby.
After being ditched by the young gentleman, I found a spot on the lawn and took a quick look at the souvenir programme. Apparently I hadn’t missed much of the opening ceremony, or what little there was of it. There was the raising of Jalur Gemilang, the official opening of the event, the PM’s recorded message then we had Fairuz Fauzy (the young F1 lad) giving a talk on his racing career. Hmm, I respect FF, but really, what did he actually have to do with the real meaning of Merdeka and why was he placed right after the PM’s recorded message?
The rest of the programme included a lion dance, a performance by a local English band, an ever present karaoke contest, a performance by a Malaysian group who is based in England, a sitar performance, as well as the usual raffle draw - but nothing extraordinary for such and auspicious occasion. The only highlight, if there was any, was Shahrizan belting out some soulful jazz numbers and oh yeah, of course the food.
Please, don’t get me wrong, the carnival wasn’t horrible it’s just that it kinda lacked substance. I mean this should have been a full fledged well thought out Merdeka Carnival that oozed semangat anak bangsa Malaysia (the true Malaysian spirit) and executed with the same precision as Blahnik put into the Masai,1997, but instead we were welcomed by a scene akin a mediocre hari kantin affair which you would commonly visit at a Malaysian high school.
Aiseyman, what happened? I mean, first of all, we’re celebrating 50 years of nationhood, I mean 50 years, not two, not ten but 50 years. Second of all, we’re celebrating this auspicious event here in London, the very country we sought independence from.
Is that what the organisers think Merdeka is? Was there not any other way to present our identity, not only to Malaysians living abroad but also the locals and other foreigners alike. Are we incapable of even conjuring a proper identity because we don’t have one? Or is it the incapability of our organisers to properly invoke something worthwhile? I really hope it’s not the latter cos I took a look at the committee list, and boy it was as neverending as the food stalls.
When asked why the days activities were lacking, a committee member replied, “The budget was only approved in July, so we couldn’t do much.” I was completely gobsmacked, it felt like a backhand slap to my hot pink lip glossed face. It sounded as lame an excuse as the infamous, “My dog ate my homework” line.
Whilst trying to recover from the nonchalant answer, I started hacking away at my Air Batu Campur (ABC) and found myself thinking, yet again, is this what the organisers think? Have we been whittled down to a food loving society that has nothing else to offer? I mean food is a great thing, and definitely a plus point in the Malaysian culture, but is that our best foot forward? Is that even the foot that we want to put forward? Aren’t the organisers proud of the Malaysian badge? Couldn’t they have put more thought into what it is to be an anak bangsa Malaysia? How and what it feels to celebrate 50 years of nationhood? Weren’t they enthusiastic to announce to everyone out there, where Malaysia is heading, our vision for the next 50 years? To share with the world who Malaysia is and above all, who her people are?
Or is it because, our organisers themselves don’t have a slingback shoe idea of what should be shouted out to the world?
As I came to the last bits of my ABC, my mind thought about our dear Tunku Abdul Rahman. I thought about how excited he must’ve been when he first proclaimed Merdeka at Dataran Merdeka all those years ago. Isn’t it a shame that not all of us feel the same way? I hope that sometime in the near future, this semangat Malaysia will be reignited with the same passion that he announced those magical words, “Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!”
Selamat Merdeka Malaysia – all my love - anak bangsa Malaysia!
5 comments:
Hi..minx
That's Merdeka for you..Merdeka to privatise everything..Merdeka to 'Halal' the sacrifices of our forefathers...Merdeka to spoonfeed the 'new Malaysians', Merdeka to 'ram-it' and Merdeka to sell our souls for our whims and fancies..
Malaysians are known to dream, spend..spend..sell..sell and even selling our daughters and mothers...for what?..competing the joneses...
Hey there babe,
Well, like always, the main focus will be on the food portion of the whole event..and LO and BEHOLD! only then they would realize that they didn't plan for anything else!
As for the FF talk/speech thingy...can't you still get it? The daddy must have sponsored the thing! (eeee...jahat nya aku!)
But really, maybe they wanted to prove that MALAYSIANS do actually achieve great heights in the eyes of the world..I guess that was their excuse.
Well, excuses aside, at least they tried.
Oh my God! He called you "Aunty"? Didn't you just want to slap him? Hehe.
hiya anonymous,
sedih kan? hope things will change!
don,
am not surprised but disappointed, expected more, got less..dunno wat to say...
iky,
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Well, in most countries, independence is commemorated through the celebration of the past. In our country, our government tends to censure history, preferring to hedge or ignore what does not suite its political agenda.
If we have nothing to look back at, we don’t really have much to look forward to, so the next best thing is to look around and be thankful for what we have now…pity that the food is the only thing 'safe' enough for us the celebrate.
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