Reflection of Merdeka Day

Selamat Hari Merdeka!!! I know that it is now 12:10am in Malaysia for 1st September (and in fact, when I later clicked "Publish Post", it would be way over 12:10am already).

For me, looking back at the 29 Merdeka Day celebration that I have gone through (including the 1st one when I was 5 months old... hahaha), I would count 3 of those to be really memorable.

45th Merdeka - 31st August 2002
50th Merdeka - 31st August 2007
52nd Merdeka - 31st August 2009

Each of those has its unique characteristic and I would really say that it is really interesting.

Flashing back to 7 years ago, Dr. Zahratul, our then Malaysian Students Department Director organized a gathering of Malaysian students at Embassy of Malaysia, Washington DC, USA. About 50 of us were there. And Dr. Zahratul just reminded me (via Facebook today) of the Merdeka shout that we had done at the Embassy ground when it struck midnight on 31st August 2002! That moment is definitely still very fresh in my mind. That gathering also set forth for the founding of ReCom.org, The Worldwide Malaysian Students Network, that transforms so many lives over the years.

Then, the 2nd memorable one was definitely the 50th Merdeka, where there were mega celebration back then. I still remembered I was at Dataran Merdeka past midnight till like 1am on 30th August 2007 night, and then the next morning, I was up again at Dataran Merdeka for the parade, and then on 31st August evening, I was part of the 20,000 crowd at Stadium Merdeka, where we went through again what happened on 31st August 1957. In fact, the 30th night ceremony was also a re-enaction of 1957.

And the 3rd memorable Merdeka, would be this year 2009. Despite the subdue situation of Merdeka in Malaysia this year, Zain HD from Random Alphabets.com organized a great one this afternoon called Merdeka Train Party. There were about 100+ people there, where we all gathered into 7 groups, and went into 7 KL Monorails to decorate it in a guerilla style. The monorails were decorated with balloons, ribbons, string spray, flags etc. It was really nice, and we were singing Negaraku, Tanggal 31, Happy Birthday and did many shouts of Merdeka.

As my group was the 1st group, and when we finished our part, we were waiting for other groups to arrive in Tun Sambanthan station, and it was amazing that we cheered on for every single KL Monorail that arrived, which brought in the other 6 groups of fellow Malaysian who went in to decorate the trains. It was beautiful. And the public were really supportive, especially foreign tourists and the people were standing up in the train to sing Negaraku with us. It was a truly Malaysian efforts. All the groups consist of Malaysians of all races, all walks of life, and we all see ourselves as truly Malaysians. We want to all work together to make the change for our motherland. We believe that every little step that we make will make us closer to our goal. As of now, All the Rage from The Star has covered it here.

One of the photos posted by All the Rage is at here.

And in the evening, Zain HD from Random Alphabets.com partnered with Delicious, to organize the launching of RA+D, where they produced T-Shirts with the design of "I Love KL", with the heart shape of the love in blue and purple, and within it, it has images of animals and gymnasts. Do check it out here.

Each T-Shirt costs RM25, where you can pick up at any Delicious. For each t-shirt you buy, Delicious pledges to contribute RM5 to either SPCA Selangor or Federal Territory Amateur Gymnastics Association (Depending on the T-Shirt design that you get). The T-Shirt proceeds will help to fund RandomAlphabets.com events, like today's events.

Reflecting back on above, it is really hearthening to see Malaysian youths start taking charge and proactive steps to do something for our country. Every little step is a positive step. Like this, decorating the KL Monorail would mean than at least 700 people have seen the process (since about 100 people were in each KL Monorail at that time). For each hour, KL Monorail might be carrying about 2,000 people per hour, so for the 6 hours (4pm to 10pm) when the monorails were fetching other passengers, the effects of the decorations would be there. So, this little act would have touched the lives of more than 10,000 people.

For my next part, would blog using Bahasa Malaysia, in conjunction with our National Day!

Selamat Hari Merdeka kepada semua pembaca blog saya ini. Kepada semua, pada hari yang penuh bermakna ini, saya ingin meluahkan perasaan saya terhadap negara saya yang tercinta - Malaysia.

Pada hari ini, saya telah dapat melihat bagaimana rakyat Malaysia, terutama generasi muda sudi, dan sebenarnya bukan sahaja sudi, malahan mengambil inisiatif untuk memulakan program-program yang penuh bermakna kepada rakyat Malaysia. Pemuda-pemudi ini mempunyai visi and hasrat untuk melihat kesemua rakyat Malaysia dapat bersatu padu and dapat meningkatkan kebolehan dari pelbagai segi, terutamanya dari segi pembangunan modal insan.

Saya ingin menyeru pemuda-pemudi rakyat Malaysia yang melayari laman web saya ini agar senantiasa mencari ruang untuk mencurahkan tenaga and usaga anda dalam projek atau inisiatif yang marak dalam sanubari anda. Projek tersebut perlulah sesuatu projek atau inisiatif yang bermakna bagi anda. Misalnya, untuk saya, saya menumpukan perhatian kepada inisiatif dalam bidang pendidikan, pemuda, kerjaya dan khidmat sosial.

Harap-harap semua orang jangan berlengah lagi. Wawasan 2020 hanyalah 11 tahun dari sekarang. Oleh yang demikian, mulai hari ini, marilah kita bersama-sama mengisi kemerdekaan Malaysia dan bergembleng tenaga membawa Malaysia ke mercu kejayaan.




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