For the record, I was born in Hospital Besar Kuala Lumpur some 24 years ago so that makes me a Malaysian. But at the age of 2 1/2, before I knew anything about passports and country and jurisdiction, my parents relocated to Singapore and I've been here ever since. My mom's a Malaysian and my dad's a Singaporean and I have relatives on both sides of the causeway. Judging from my history on paper alone, I should b more Singaporean than Malaysian. After all, I have lived here almost all my life, been educated through the stringent Singapore education system, socialised and mingled with Singaporean friends and family. Now that I have the Blue Singapore IC, you can say the only thing Malaysian about me is my Malaysian passport.
But my heart is MALAYSIAN and I'm goddamn proud of it.
I watch in awe and pride yesterday as we drove home from Desaru and we saw flags hanging everywhere. In shops, at the front gate of houses, along the roads and most obvious ones, on the bonnet of cars driving on the opposite side of the road. It was truly a marvelous sight.
I have always been very proud of my Malaysian roots. I am very close to the Malaysian side of the family and take every chance I get to go back to Malaysia either for holiday, shopping or to visit my family members. Alhamdulillah, The Don enoys being in Malaysia too and looks forward to going to Malaysia. In fact, he is planning to start a business in Malaysia and already has a company registered there.
Its funny how I feel so strongly about Malaysia and being a Malaysian considering the fact that I have never lived in Malaysia nor been through any experiences of being a Malaysian (Well, I havnt had a chance to vote !!!) I though it's just me but my best friend, Mahanom, who is in the same predicament (educated in S'pore born to Singaporean mother) feels just as strongly.
My Singapore family and even my collegues don't understand why I am so hype about being a Malaysian. They dun understand why Malaysians are so patriotic about their own country and question to whom are we showing our patriotism to.
Singaporeans don't quite understand the spirit of nationalism the way Malaysians do. They tend to equate the country with the ruling political party and refuse to display their flags in silent protest of the things they are not happy with the govt about. Hell, 60% of the population can't even sing their national anthem right. (Mali kita lakyat Sinjiapula...)
If not for fear of being deported and have my new house taken away from me, PR status revoked and bank accounts frozen, I'd hang the Malaysian flag at my home and let it fly high today. (Can't do it on the car coz the car's not under my name!!)
But I guess a Malaysian will always be a Malaysian, no matter which part of the world you are in.
3 comments:
UIks..your comment needed passwerd? fooh! nemind..i'm proud of you shsuya! even myself born in KL and bred all around M'sia are not as patriotic. ehehe..but luckily, each time before our organisation's Presidential ADdress, we have to sing Negaraku. Heck! come la migrate here (migrate, ke?) since that your hubby to be pun nak ada biz here so after u r married, u can live here! i have a couple of S'porean friends that live in KL..mmg mantol la kawan ngan diorang..! gerekkk je..(always wanna speak s'porean styled; lived in JB for 6 yrs) ehehe..! Happy Merdeka!
My regret that they create borders between Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. How I wish we have no borders to split us all and be one huge family. We are already interrelated.. why do they have to bother splitting us up for their benefit?
make sense amir. singapore was a part of us ape long time ago? anyway, happy merdeka people!
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