Selamat Hari Merdeka

When the month of August comes, my dad will bring out the Jalur Gemilang and hang it up in front of our house. I'll probably help hold the ladder steady for him. But my part in patriotism probably ends there, if you could call it 'a part'.

Every time the 13th of May comes, I'll ask my dad to retell what he experienced on that day, in the year 1963. And he'll tell me his mom had made him hold a stick and keep watch outside the house. Thankfully, he was in a small village in the suburbs of KL, so the riots never got near his village. However, he says, 'I only missed it by half an hour. If I hadn't got home before that, my head would probably have been gone.'

My mom too, experienced May 13, 1963. She remembers vaguely running away out her house with her whole family to a safe place, away from fires and shouts everywhere. She also remembers one of her classmates stopped coming to school after that, because her sister had been killed in the riots.

You would probably expect all these stories to come from your grandma who doesn't speak the same language as you, and who experienced the WWII and the Japanese coming and pulling out people's fingernails.

But what d'ya know? My mom experienced that. She experienced living with 6 other family members in tiny 2 room Chow Kit Road flat the size of my living room. My dad had to sit outside his house, trembling with fear, hoping the riots of May 13 would never reach his village. He who used to get whacked my his mom for secretly swimming in the mining pool.

And then people of my parent's generation got married, and had children. And those children are us, our generation. And what... what small flat were you talking about?

48 years. Or less, considering 1963, 40 years. We've changed a great deal in 40 years. We've the tallest building in the world (2nd, now) and we even have our own universities,our own car manufacterers, and oh our own philharmonic orchestra (save for the 99% foreign employees there).

I love the amount of holidays our educational system has, I love the tropical rainforests, Cameron Highlands, the numerous islands, the glorious food. What can I say, I'm thankful we don't need to be in constant fear of riots or political assassinations. And though we have not gone through the experiences our parents and grandparents have gone through, I'm glad I live here.

Selamat Hari Merdeka!

PS. Malaysia has lots of snakes as well. =)

In the cool shade of the cross,

mary-ruth