After the Fun and Laughter

Salam. Another Merdeka Day Celebration has come and gone...merdeka!merdeka!merdeka? I look around me..i look at what was shown on TV and i ask myself....merdeka? What from? the chains of "penjajahan asing?" I have never seen more "rempits" and "hiphoppers" and what have you than on that night!!!! What are we free from actually?
Dont misconstrue my laments here as being ungrateful. I love my country just as anyone of us who was born n grew up here. I looked forward too to celebrate my nation's 50th independence day. Being a post merdeka child, i am more appreciative to be born a free individual! However, as a teacher, when i see what our teenagers are developing into, i m in a state of stunned disbelief. And as a muslim, i shudder with fear!
Forgive me if i sound old fashioned...but what has painting one's face with the stripes of Jalur Gemilang got to do with the spirit of Merdeka? Except that this face painting is done by the west..and so our children follow, for no apparent reason or plausible explanation to link it to the spirit of Merdeka. Excuse me...but what has coming out in drones of motorbikes which rumble so loudly that you cant even hear yourself think got to do with the spirit of merdeka...except to show that malaysians are more affluent today than they are decades ago, that almost every teenager has a bike to rempit on!
On the eve of merdeka, a few students from my class (class no 7 out of 7 classes of Form 3), said to me,"Teacher, see you tonight...either at Putra Jaya or Shah Alam to celebrate the countdown to merdeka." Hmmm...they seemed excited enough, I had to smile at their enthusiasm. I responded and reminded them that they are not totally merdeka yet, there is yet the PMR to contend with, so if they could please get back into class where their subject teacher was teaching the day's lesson. One of them then told me to chill out, that whats there in PMR, come on man, its fun time...naik motor ramai-ramai, wusha wusha awek..and staying up late!" I was stunned by his comment..literally. If he had said it was going to be a special night coz there would be fireworks display, i would hv understood, but with that kind of remark..you know what...i am lost...something is missing here...
When i regained composure i asked them if they would be going out with their parents (in my old fashioned mind, i was thinking maybe it being a special night, malaysians would make it a special family night out), but simultaneously several boys answered, "Boringlah cikgu, mana ada...tak best lah macam tu, budak kecik bolehlah..."Again i asked, in all sincerity if their parents allowed them to be out on their own and riding motorbikes with other adrenaline pumped youngsters? Their answers gave me a renewed, more skewed definition of merdeka. You know what they said? Just one simple answer, "Merdeka!"
Hello...what exactly did they mean by that??? All little children love merdeka celebrations..but is that as far as it goes?
That is why i hesitate to post something prior to merdeka about merdeka. To tell the truth, i was feeling very apprehensive about the upcoming celebrations weeks before 31st August. I am not a disillusioned person or trying to be a sour grape here, on the contrary....but as a teacher, i feel the youngsters today, especially the teenagers are getting more entrapped into the "social and emotional bondage" of outside influence until, simply put, they are totally losing their own identity. Some have "recoloured" their hair, simply because they are not happy that their hair is black, and if they could at least look more western, or more korean or whatever. Some roam about with pants that hang down as if they are preserving their "faeces" in the seat of their pants...and claim that is their identity man... some go about looking blur and so sombre, with their black painted eyes, gothic clothes and going round crying "merdeka, merdeka" with looks that make them appear to be mourning instead.
For others who do not appear "different" just to prove their identitiy as young Malaysians(?). then they celebrate merdeka by literally stealing other people's flag just so they could wave the jalur gemilang in the spirit of merdeka. What?? steal a 70 cents flag from other people? Surely not out of dire needs, for God's sake we have been independent for 50 years, and we have gone such a long way since..into the era of modernisation. For the fun of it? I smiled when i first heard of this, it was just so ridiculous, it was almost hilarious..but the implication...what are the values that are in the souls of our beloved, young malaysians today? Have we taken a wrong turn somewhere?
I actually went with my family to be part of the countdown crowd of rakyat malaysia yang cintakan negara. After dinner, we headed all the way to Putra Jaya, only to make a U-turn when we saw the potential traffic jam we might be trapped in. STill determined to be part of Malaysia, we turned towards Shah Alam, at least to watch the fireworks from far...only to finally give up when we thought there was not going to be one, coz of the delay start for at least 10 mins aftr the stroke of midnight. But it made no difference by then...my 2 precious boys were already asleep at the back of the car...fireworks or not. I looked at them and was reminded of the incident when once, our Beloved Prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi wasallam, as a teenager, wanted to attend a night of celebration in the city of Mekkah. He got himself ready, only to fall asleep as soon as night appeared, and was spared from spending a meaningless night of short lived fun and pleasure. I like to think God was sparing my boys too...
I love Malaysia, but as i grow older and watch Malaysia grow old too, i am thinking that Malaysia is having an identity crisis..stuck in its teenage phase, unable to grow old gracefully,or to mature wisely... Something must be done..by one and all. It is our duty to God to bring back these poor strayed lamb. But first, lets make sure, we are not strayed ourselves...lets make sure we have not forgotten the struggle for freedom...and God Knows Best!