Happy 48th Birthday Malaysia (31/8/2005)

Somebody asked me today, “Tak pasang bendera ka? Merdeka Day is coming” I asked that guy. “What the hell for?” I know Merdeka day is coming already but is that really necessary. To show how much we respect our country and how much we really “enjoy” being independent or to show that we are being partiotic.

Is it enough for us to “kibarkan” jalur gemilang to celebrate Independence Day? Or is it enough for us to paint our car with jalur gemilang motives for us to really appreciate Independence Day? Does it really show and bring out the patriotism in us? Or are we less patriotic if we don’t do such things?

I mean we see some people (especially the younger generations) carrying flags and painting their car (I have seen this) with the jalur gemilang and shouting merdeka, merdeka, merdeka. But do they have any clue about what merdeka is all about? Do they have any clue the struggles those people in the past have to go through? So that they can shout merdeka, merdeka, merdeka comes 31 August. What’s the meaning of this anyway?

Before we look at the whole story of independence, let us see who have colonized us and how we were colonized by the foreign powers. Led by Alfonso de Albuquerque the Portuguese first came to the Malay peninsular in the year 1511. That was the year the Malacca Sultanate Empire fell to the hand of the Portuguese and the Portuguese started to build their settlement in Malacca and introduce the Portuguese egg tart to us (I made up this part). The Portuguese are in the east to conquer none other than the spice trade and for some years until 1641, they controlled much of the spice trade in the far-east region.

Then in 1641 came the Dutch. Remember the bright red building in “Bandar Melaka”? Well, that was one of the buildings that the Dutch have left behind. Nevertheless, during the Dutch occupation, the spice trade as well as other trade in Malacca had decline so much until there’s nothing much left to be brought to the Netherlands. The only focus at that moment during the Dutch occupation was the safety of the spice route and the elimination of the competitors in the spice trade. Nevertheless, the Portuguese and the Dutch occupation didn’t bring very much impact on the Malay Peninsular except for some cultural matters and may be language.

Then came the British. British conquest came very much at the same time as the industrial revolution in Europe. The dawn of the British occupation came when the Sultan of Kedah, after being persuaded by Sir Francis Light agreed to cede the island of Penang to the Queen (or was it King at that time? Don’t blame me as I was not born yet at that time) and Sir Francis Light gladly named the island the Prince of Wales Island (as if the island has no name before. I don’t understand these British people, they must “kacau” and change things). Then the occupation spreads to Malacca, which was occupied by the Dutch at the time being and then finally after the Anglo-Dutch Treaty in 1824, the British came to occupy Temasek or now better known as Singapore. These British occupied territories are known as the Straits Settlements.

So many things changed during the British occupation including the introduction of the English law in the Straits Settlements. The first introduction of the English law took place with the introduction of the 1st Royal Charter of Justice in 1807 and followed by the 2nd Royal Charter of Justice and the subsequent 3rd Royal Charter of Justice. That was the first step which was taken by the British to safeguard their interest in the Straits Settlements.

Not being fulfilled with that later came the period when the British meddled with the Malay States. First they came with an offer to help the Perak people to solve their problem. With a little strange but unique way of choosing their king, the royalties were having problem in their political standings. At the same time, two clans, the Gee Hin and Hai San (they do mining) were fighting with each other. To solve these matter, the Sultan of Perak to be, Tengku Abdullah sent an SMS to the British. Thus, the British willingly lend their help and the Pangkor Treaty 1874 was signed. Among the terms of the treaty was: -

i) Raja Abdullah was acknowledged as the legitimate Sultan to replace Sultan Ismail who would be given a title and a pension of 1000 Mexican pesos a month (simply give pesos why can’t you give other currency?).

ii) The Sultan would receive a British Resident (which means the Sultan was going to be the puppets only) whose advice had to be sought and adhered to in all matters except those pertaining to the religion and customs of the Malays.

iii) All collections and control of taxes as well as the administration of the state had to be done under the name of the Sultan but arranged according to the Resident's advice (means British get some).

iv) The Minister of Larut (not Dato' Raja Ahmad Zainuddin bin Raja Omar) would continue to be in control, but would no longer be recognized as a liberated leader. Instead, a British Officer, who would have a vast authority in administrating the district, would be appointed in Larut (meaning that he has no power anymore la).

v) The Sultan and not the British government would pay the Resident's salary (British capitalize on all our resources, put their adviser and still ask us to pay).

Then, per the terms of the Pangkor Treaty, J.W.W. Birch was appointed as the first British Resident in Perak. But he was not well received in Perak. The act of taking shower in the nude on the riverbanks irritates the eyes of most malay dignitaries including Maharajalela. To Maharajalela the scene of a British middle-aged man taking a bath in the nude from his window was not interesting after all. Thus, he told his “kaki” to go and fix the situation and the “kaki” did as instructed (yes I concocted the story line but the story was true).

(The Malays hated the idea of other people colonizing them and during this period they started to stand and fight against the British. There were those who fought even before)

The Pangkor Treaty was later the basis of the formation of the Federated Malay States, and then came the Unfederated Malay States so on and so forth. After several years, these British “gentlemen” think that was not enough. Came the idea of Malayan Union which was totally rejected mostly by the people in Tanah Melayu. UMNO was formed and later other political parties rises to fight for independence.

Oh darn, I forgot all about the Japanese occupation. Ok, during the height of the Meiji Empire (no more Samurai. The last one was Tom Cruise. Hah hah..), Japan extended their empire by first conquering Manchuria (it is situated north of China but not Russia/Siberia). Then the empire spreads to the South East Asia including the Malay Peninsular. Some of us were tortured and most of our ancestors, including my grandparents almost starved. The conditions were not heavenly at that moment. Rice is luxury. Most people eat “ubi kayu” (tapioca).

For about 5 years the Japanese stayed in our country and then left after they were defeated basically in the Pacific region to the U.S (the superpower to be). Then in 1945 once the Japanese signed the “papers”, the British w**** who left the locals to fight and shoo the Japanese away comfortably came to “rule” us again. Then the story of Malayan Union came.

The idea of the Malayan Union was first expressed by the British in the aftermath of World War 2. A British “gentleman” by the name of Sir Harold MacMichael was assigned the task of gathering the Malay state rulers' approval for the Malayan Union. In a short period of time, he managed to obtain the entire Rulers’ signatures through intimidation. Therefore, on 1 April 1946, the Malayan Union officially came into existence with Sir Edwand Gent as its first governor. The capital of the Union was Kuala Lumpur (Putrajaya came way later).

The Malays opposed the creation of the Union. The opposition was mainly due to the way Sir Harold MacMichael acquired the Sultans’ signatures, the Sultans’ powers were reduced and the offering of citizenship to “pendatang asing” mainly the ethnic Chinese because their economic dominance was seen as a threat to the economic development of the Malays.

The British was forced to scrape the Malayan Union idea from the board due to tremendous internal pressure inside the Malayan Union, the British finally conceded to the local opposition. The Malayan Union ceased to exist on 31 January 1948.

After the short rule under the Malayan Union, Persekutuan Tanah Melayu which recognised the position of the Malays (not other people) as the definitive people of Malaya as well as outlining stricter conditions on the granting of citizenship. This was basically the outline of which Malaysia now was based upon.

Since Mahatma Gandhi and Jawarlal Nehru had managed to plead to the British and negotiate the independence of India somewhere in 1945, on 2 January 1956, a delegation lead by the late Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al Haj left for England with the same hope of being freed from the colony. On 18 January 1956, the negotiation started and on 6 February 1956, after plundering away most of our resources and taking away most of our ways of life and not forgetting those who meddle with our culture, the “Merdeka Agreement” was duly sign, sealed and delivered (oh… yeah) which lead to the independence of Tanah Melayu on 31 August 1957.

The story can go longer but I am cutting it short. What’s the point of me giving the whole story of our country? My intention was and still is to remind us that we have come a long way and we (not us but our ancestors rather) have fought so many battles and walk thousands of miles to come to this point. Many have died since some of their names were remembered and mentioned in our History textbook but many of them were not mentioned and some of them do not even been buried properly. Therefore, is it wise for us just to run with a piece of flag shouting “Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka” and not seeing and knowing the struggles our ancestors have to endure during the British, Japanese, British, Dutch and Portuguese occupation and/or colonization. We complain about the fuel increase (not that I am suggesting that we should take it totally) but least we remember the fight and those who departed to bring independence and left us to enjoy a free country.

We are still running here and there searching, for what? I am not sure but we have to remember why we were colonized for some time not long ago and the reasons that bring us back here. Those people who fought for the country’s independence were the patriots, not us who swam across the English Channel (they were those who managed to swim across the channel before) or those who conquered the great Mount Everest (Edmund Hillary has done it. So what’s there to be proud of, we were beaten in the race anyway in mean any human being who has the will to do so is able to do it and I don’t know how many times the sherpas went up and down the mountain all these while) or even those went to Antartica or Antartic (research or whatever reason I don’t know. The money spent to send these people there can be used for other purpose like feeding the poor and needy). Those who are willing to fight for the country are the patriots now not those who fled at the first sight of trouble.

Those who realized the significance of independence were the patriots not us who ran around here and there for nothing and those who are thankful for the state of affairs we are in now are the patriots and not those who are waiting to get the best of our country. Sucking away and taking “advantages” like ticks and if that’s the case we are no better than those who colonized us. So let’s join hand to ensure that our country remain independent and do let those buggers come back and tell us what to do the way our “leaders” were asked to. It was not beautiful.

In addition to that, let us be a true Malaysian all the way (in addition to be a good Muslims which is paramount), let us be patriotic always (not only by sticking flag on the hood of our car and on the bikes) and let us be thankful for what we have today all the time not only when Merdeka comes and during the Merdeka month.