It’s school holiday, and I am busy.  What luck.  It’s a trend that schools have exams right before the holidays, leaving school holidays not exactly a holiday.

The month of Ramadan is also moving into its second week which means Muslims would be fasting for a month in anticipation for Hari Raya.  I for once enjoy spending wild at the Pasar Ramadan, year after year… but I think, this year, I’d have to make huge cut backs because I need to budget.  All this, thanks to the new aircond unit at my new place, repairs on my car, and well… ASTRO.  My budget is swelling by the month, and I need to make serious cutbacks to save.

Anyway, with the National Day coming soon, ASTRO is showing 33 special series which showcases Malaysia.  It’s not often that I get to see my country on TV, as in being described by foreigners, so I’ve marked, or rather cut out the newspaper cutting which shows the schedule, and I am making time to actually watch all the series, or rather whichever series I can (considering I didn’t subscribe to a full ASTRO package).

This year, Malaysia turns 52.  Sarawak has been in Malaysia for 45 year.  It’s sad that after 52 years, some Malaysians have finally decided that they dislike the stable and harmonious Malaysia anymore.  I think, with that said, you could count how many street protest, chaos, and racial comments have been made in the past year or so.  Too many actually, that it’s starting to get upsetting..

Anyway, looking back at 52 years, I think we Malaysians have something to be very proud off.  It doesn’t really matter that our engineers speak broken English on Discovery Channel when talking about the Petronas Twin Towers.  Nor is it such a huge fuss to see how foreigners actually think that Proton and Perodua are both making ‘cars without a soul‘.  The fact is, Malaysia is a nation which is already well known around the globe, regardless for it’s good or bad side.  In fact, we can take pride that our closest and main rival, Singapore does not even have it’s very own automobile product, while we can happily boast of two marketable brands.

We once had the tallest building in the world (still the tallest twin towers in the world), and we are considered by many countries to be an example.  As a matter of fact, Singapore decided to build their street F1 circuit after Malaysia’s success in the F1, and also two major casinos after realizing that Singaporeans spend way too much money in Genting Resort (I read both articles somewhere, but I don’t know where).

The fact is, there is so many things which we Malaysians should be thankful about our country, and we could actually live without making riots or street protest when we are unhappy about something.  Some quarters will continue to fight for equality, while others would stress the fats in the Malaysian ‘social contract’, but I think both sides are just trying to get the upper hand on the issue.  In fact, I feel that everyone should give and take with one side being more transparent on issues, while the other side being less ‘bossy’ about what power they have in hand.

At the end of the day…. we are all Malaysians, and we all look forward to a happy, progressive and harmonious nation.

.NEGARAKU, Malaysia…..

…….Happy 52nd birthday.