Hello Malaysians!

It's Merdeka this month - we are 50. You may not find me at the Putrajaya parade but I still have a certain sentimentality about Tanggal 31 and all that, perhaps quite well represented by this ad in MAS' Going Places. It's a shame that it is so small here, I really liked the shots.


It IS the little things that make being Malaysian great. So many of us take for granted things which we share to an extent that amazingly every Malay, Chinese, Indian and other race in this country can call their own, yet respect that it comes from a different race. Like satay. Mamak. Yong Tau Foo. Our festivals - I've seen Chinese people wear their cheongsams during Hari Raya in the shopping malls just for the heck of it.

And for me, being known and accepted first as a Malaysian, then a Chinese. I don't think that neccessarily goes in that order in other countries of overseas Chinese diaspora.

Living in this country can be frustrating. Snatch thieves, seemingly increasing cases of people being cut up and stuffed in freezers, tunnel vision driving, public transportation networks not linked up, gripes of preferential treatment bla bla.

But you know what? I like it. I still believe in it. I believe in things big and small- like genuinely chummy conversations with cab drivers, the Prime Minister just because he looks like a good man, the layered tastes of our food, our identity. It's hard to define what that is because we are not the kind of people who put labels to things, but ironically that's exactly because we kind of know what's Malaysian and what's not without having to rename the rambutan the Malaysian lychee or something ridiculous like that.

So come back. Stay here. Stay wherever you are. But never forget who we are, and the little, frustrating, hilarious, heart-warming, trying, growing country called Malaysia where we come from.

Happy Merdeka Day!