Malaysian Night. Why my heart ached.

Last night, the annual Malaysian Night hosted by the Malaysian club MYSUN was held in a club in Newcastle City.

Alia reciting a poem about Independence

Despite my horrible appetite and ongoing tummy cramps, we made it through alright. There were lots of food, performances and what not all night. Overall, things were good.

However while sitting in the front table, trying to eat something to chase this gastro away (does that even work scientifically?), several things intrigued me.

Abang Mizan aka my Silat teacher. Cool or what?

Firstly, what the emcees called 'history classes'. While waiting for things to be set up, the emcees would sometimes state some historical facts about Malaysian independence. The recurrent theme that I managed to pick up was about colonisation, by one power after the next. Malaysia was colonized by the portugese, then the dutch and the brits and the japs.... Gee...I thought that was just heart breaking. That we were there telling some ten percent of the audience that our country was a ball in the air, punched and kicked and rolled around by people. True that was. It is historical fact, I shall not argue. But to me, listening to all that through the voices of the emcees whom have no choice but to state it cheerfully is just, again, heart breaking. And I asked myself, confused and wondering, where is the patriotism in that?

Apek on the band 'Tragic Affair'

Why dont we talk about the struggle for independence instead? To cherish people who have made it possible? To appreciate them and acknowledge the fact that what they did finally brought us free from the brits after hundreds of years of colonization of land and mind? And to state that the fight for independence was bloodless? So what was it that flowed from the veins of the Warriors of Malacca, Dato' Maharajalela, Tok Gajah, Tok Janggut and thousands more, be it Malay, Indian or Chinese when they were shot and stabbed by these colonizers? Are we trying to paint a politically beautiful, peaceful history at the cost of the honor of these men and women who gave their lives trying to protect the land that was dear to them? Is this the way we honour our forefathers?

Maybe a great thing to do is to get to know these patriots personally, to know what makes them the patriots they were, what gave them the strength to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country and learn from them.     

Awesome performance! 

Secondly, to the agreement of some of my collegues, none of them Malay and one of them not a Malaysian, some of the performances weren't really Malaysian culture at all. The girls doing the chinese dance actually said its not chinese (to which i think i understand), rather it was just a fan (like chinese fans) dance. And again, it gets me thinking, if the objective of Malaysian night is to showcase malaysian culture, are some of these things that we do correlate well with what we say? What is the point in this then? I'm not criticizing my friends who put in a lot of effort into their performances, i mean, what they did were great! Especially the Indian dance, but I would like to enjoin us to think about what we do. And learn.

What we do, must be consistent with what we say. Especially when we are representing a whole lot of people to the world. If we want to celebrate independence, to celebrate diversity in a multicultural land, we should then talk about independence, about revolutions, about lessons we can learn from being colonized, about what its like to live in racial and religious harmony and how Australia can learn from what we do back home. Yes, many people want to see dances, many people want to cheer and laugh and have a good time, but is that what our independence and our culture is all about? Dancing? Singing songs that dont even potray our independence and multiculturalism and showing fighting moves? Are we that shallow of a people? Is this shallowness what we, a percentage of the most well educated people from the country are proud about?

Hiyak hiyak hiyak!!!

Think, people, think! You are intelligent people.

Why dont we have a deeper Malaysian night next time? One thats about revolutions. Revolution of mind, of language, of culture, of religious tolerance, of harmony, of economics, of science. We don't have to abandon the great performances, but we can certainly educate ourselves more and other people about the greatness of Malaysia. Lets do a play, about aspirations of young Malaysians, of how we want the future to be, of how we want to be liberated from the clutches of negative foreign influences, of how we want to, together build a better Malaysia for all. Integrated, harmonized, peaceful, understanding.

I'd risk sounding ideal and unreal, but isnt this what we want? Isnt this patriotism? Isnt this what we mean when we say we love our country? 

We should love Malaysia as much as Aryzz loves to put the Malaysian flag into his mouth!

Salam perpaduan, salam cinta Malaysia!
Azfar 

Credits to Ahmad Syafiq Akbar Ali, the photographer who allowed me to post these photos up. To see more of his work, go http://www.facebook.com/ahmadsyafiq . Thank you bro! This is my most colourful post ever!