Merdeka

Despite certain Ministers claim that KLites lacked Merdeka spirit, I think it was more to do with certain unpopular individual rather than lack patriotism. With the SEA Games coming, Malaysian would be coming out in droves to support our home team I was sure. And with that, the Merdeka spirit would be soaring high.

Unfortunately, the statement by the said Minister seemed succeeded in only making himself unpopular. Life for the KLites would still go on. These KL folks are more likely to love their country than the Minister would think. Most of them studied abroad and had a sense of belonging to return home making a living here.

Maybe the Merdeka spirit for the minister was different from mine. So, good luck to him then ....

Bendera

The National Day - Merdeka - will be next weekend. And with the current political scene, the celebration felt somewhat different.

Rather than lamenting in all this politics, I would rather take my camera out and start snapping photos. Last weekend I did just that and the plan was to capture the National Flag - Jalur Gemilang - in all its glory.

This weekend would be a long one, with being on call on Friday. I plan to stay in this weekend as there were street protests planned on Saturday and Sunday. The TV and social media would be interesting this weekend ...

Merdeka Came Early

So, Merdeka was coming round the corner and just by the lift from my ward, I was greeted by this. A tad too early must admit.

Some good news at least. Just found that coming Monday would be a public holiday for Selangor. An unexpected day off for me. But Anita had already have some plans in store. Here one shopping I was sure.

Jalur Gemilang

It was the National Day today. I remember back in 2003 upon my return from the UK after living there for 13 years. Then, all the cars have flags strapped on their sides. Most of the houses on my street have Jalur Gemilang - the National Flag as it was affectionately called - flying proudly at their gates. Even the motorcycles presented with accident risk with flag poles sticking out from the back of their seats. Put it mildly, the whole country went Jalur Gemilang crazy!

I was wondering back then, what the fuss was about? Maybe the economy was good. The peasants were happy. Business was good. I stuck the flag at the front gate and that was about it. I could appreciate the need to have flags coming out from my car. Fast forward 7 years, and things were rather different. There were only a couple of houses with Jalur Gemilang at the gates - anther one belong to a Chinese neighbour. When I went out yesterday with Puan Anita to a Bazaar Ramadhan, we did a quick count on how many cars have flags on them. Out of 43, only 3 had one. Less than 8%. Maybe everyone realised that celebrating the National Day meant more than just flag waving. Maybe the economy was not as rosy as it was. Maybe Ramadhan was taking its toll after all. I shudder to think that the current generation have far less appreciation of what Merdeka was …… That’s not a good sign …..

Oh! So posh!

iPad? Rubbish bin?Brought the boys to Pavilion yesterday, since I had to hop round the corner to sort my credit card payment. Thought I would take my camera along to see what the decor was like there. Suffice to say I was disappointed. There was hardly anything, apart from a few decorated trees here and there. THere were not much in the way of Merdeka celebration either. Put it this way, the Ipoh Municipal would have closed the shopping centre if it were located in Ipoh - they insisted on all shops there displaying the National Flag - Jalur Gemilang - at the front of their establishment.

On the way back, I noticed that somebody just stacked away an empty box of iPad at one of the rubbish bins. A quick look around for cameras to make sure it was not a candid camera prank, I took the snap. Oh! So posh!