Merdeka!!!

Independence Day or Merdeka is being celebrated through the country today on a moderate scale owing to the fact that we are actually in the holy month of Ramadhan. As I go through the day with an independence day mass at the SHS Cathedreal, I started to ponder the word independence. Are we really independent?

The answer is a definite "No". There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, the birth of this country is as a result of a series of negiotiations with our colonial masters. Until today, we can still say that we may be independent as a country but our way of life, our thinking is very much colonised by the west. We always have this impression that anything that is produced by the west is definitely better than local production.

When the first Proton Saga made it to the streets in Malaysia, we are all so proud that we never imagine a country like Malaysia can produced her own car. But as usual, skeptism arise and we start questioning about the production. A question like "how may percent of the car is produced locally?' started to play in the minds of Malaysians.

Secondly, there is no doubt that Malaysia has prosper all through the years. Our lives are made easier with the electric rice cooker, the washing machine, the mobile phone and the computer. Again we can see that these products are all branded in foreign countries like Japan, Sweden or even Taiwan. We use to buy perfumes that have brands like Christion Dior, Versace etc but when are we going to have a perfume that smells equally nice but taking up a Malaysian brand? So once again, we can see that our lives are being colonised by the things we use.

Thirdly, as we move through the era of a borderless world, we have to take heed of our leader's advice that even we may enjoy the fruits of colonism, we must never let go of the values that we hold true for ourselves...