2007: Malaysians Celebrate 50 Years Of Independence With Pride. Really?
The following is the first part of a feature article from Bernama. Read it and then say whether it reflects the general view of Malaysians today and if you concur or disagree with the gist of the report. Also do you think the younger generation has the same sentiments on Merdeka as the 'not-so-young?'The long-awaited year 2007 has finally arrived. It's a highly significant year for Malaysians as it marks the nation's 50th Merdeka anniversary.
In 35 weeks from now, Malaysians will be celebrating half a century of successful
nationhood and they have every reason to feel exulted.
Looking back, the road to independence evokes bittersweet memories of events and personalities that are now part of the nation's history.
Malaysians definitely will celebrate proudly the nation's achievements since independence and its exemplary plural society. Malaysians today decide on their destiny and are no longer under foreign powers.
However, independence did not come on a silver platter, but the result of resolute fight against all odds for self-determination.
Yet probably the most defining event was the first Malay Congress on March 4, 1946 at the Sultan Sulaiman Club in Kuala Lumpur that united the Malays in defending their rights and their hereditary rulers against the Malayan Union proposal.
The congress united 41 Malay organisations that vehemently stood against the proposal that would erode the position of the Malay rulers and provide automatic citizenship to non-Malays.
During the congress it was decided that a political party known as the United Malay National Organisation (Umno) be established.
During the third Malay Congress held at the Istana Besar in Johor Baharu, from May 11 to 12, 1946, Umno was born with Datuk Onn Jaafar at the helm. The credit went to Onn whose sterling leadership saved the day and later provided the Malays with a political platform, Umno. The Malays soon realised that they now had a potent weapon, Umno. And now their ultimate goal was independence for the Federation of Malaya.
The full Bernama article: HERE
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Labels: Malaysia - General
posted by The Malaysian. at 1/03/2007 06:00:00 PM
5 Comments:
UMNO Propaganda churning out loads of crap as usual.
BTW why mentioned Malaysians when it's all UMNO, UMNO and UMNO?
yes, i agree with you that the writer wrote as if she had her head hidden underground. but as we both know, the media in S'pore & M'sia are never too introspective when it comes to certain issues (not forgetting that M'sia fared much better than S'pore in a global media freedom survey).
but that said, M'sia is quite a miracle indeed, with all the odds stacked against its success overcome one by one. perhaps the writer was writing about what the mood of the 50th anniversary SHOULD be, as opposed to what it actually is.
I am not surprised at all with your position. You have never being able to admit what great things that malaysia and the government have managed to achieved within the various constraints and limitations knowing very well this is a multireligious and multiracial country. save 13 mei 69, we never have any religious, racial and civil wars.
we still have our freedom, we dont have bombs explooding in our midsts once in a while like in thailand, we dont have religious killings like in indonesia, we dont have opressions of civil rights and regulated life like in singapore, we dont have independent and civil wars like in the phillipines . those are examples. you can extend those examples to many other countries which are unfortunate enough to face all kinds of problems and killings and unrests.
I can line up all kinds of things that a generally good minded malaysian will be grateful and thankful for. sure we have our issues like tol roads, prices, costs of living etc but be thankful that we have peace, we dont have wars etcetc to enable us to adress all those issues!
blueheeler, you're correct when you say that the writer was probably thinking of what should be the mood.
warrior2 - I fully agree with you that there are many things which we should appreciate and be thankful for.
Yes ,we should appreciate the good things around us...But what are we going to do about the apples that are turning sour...? Are we going to wait for it to turn bad or pluck it beforehand...
The same is in Malaysia...We are enjoying the labours of past leaders and peoples with the right mindset who wanted to see this nation strives forward...So are we still going to be grateful for the now day leaders and soon-to-be-leaders and give them a freehand in deciding our path and to make mistakes...
When things are wrong,we should correct it at once...just being grateful for all things is not a right thing to do...If not ,we are aligning our selves to be a nation which is going to face a bigger problem than our neighbours already facing...
Be nice when good thing happens,but be firm when bad things happen...
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