Happy Merdeka Day to all my fellow Malaysians!
I am a proud Malaysian.
In the past, lots of things happened to Malaysia and i thought it was challenges that Malaysian have to strongly faced it with an open heart. But, it will never changed how i felt toward my country. I am still proud being borne and raised here. Bad things happen to people or country but it shouldn’t make you doubt your loyalty.
Why I love being Malaysian?
When i was a kid, i was born and raised in Malay community. Our family was accepted to the community with open heart. My best friends at school were Chinese, Indian and Malay. My best friends at home were all Malays. Not only my best friend were kind and nice, their parents and sibling were generous too.
I always had my lunch and dinner at their house. Using hand to eat rice is part of my culture, may be at least my dad’s side. Yes, we truly eat with hand. Maybe because my dad is from Kelantan and we, Kelantanese blend well with Malay culture. Even my dad spoke Kelantan
accent well, not me. I just spoke Malay well that people even thought i am a Malay.
Sometimes, i even slept over at my malay friend’s house and being with them felt like family. I love how my friend’s mom will cooked their malay dishes like masak lemak cili padi, curry ayam or ikan,rendang, sambal sotong etc…
On the occasion of any Kenduri, the people will invite us to their event. The host normally will knocked every houses to invite them personally. And they were kind enough to knock at our door and invited us. We will went to the event, sometimes we will donate some money or bought some gift. In returned, we will received a handmade flower with a boiled egg or a small box of chocolate/candy from the host.
5 o’clock was our golden hour, or at least mine. I will waited for all my friends came out to play. We will played “teng teng”, “selipar tiga”, “hide and Seek” , “masak masak” and lots more. I loved playing with them. There weren’t any racial sentiment at all. We’re friends.
Occasionally, some mean girls ( not my friends) will called me names, but my best friends will came to rescue and start calling them names too. How i loved the unity we had.
So, what i wanted to say is every race have bad and good people. And i always believe good people are more than bad people. We just have to look pass those bad people and embrace good people regardless their skin color.
Being Malaysian is not about what race you are, but about being unity among Malaysian. There shouldn’t any label like “Hidup Melayu” or “Hidup Chinese” or “Hidup Indian”. It should be Hidup Malaysian!
To all my fellow Malaysians out there, Happy Merdeka Day and stay unity forever!
