discussions in a group

I saw this thread in one of my Yahoo groups. The first thread sound like this

Dear Friends,

As we are celebrating soon Hari Malaysia, from CMO
Penang, would like to request for your sharing for
Hari Malaysia.

Question:
What is your feelings towards the Sept 16 1963? Does
it make any difference for you?

Please send you reflection soon. Thank you.

Usually I will be the silent one. But after reading several replies after that, I couldn't help myself from not replying to them because some of the replies sounded like this

"do the west msians even know when the malaysia day. i myself never celebrate merdeka on 31 august bcz i felt it's like celebrate something that is not belong to me. but when it comes to 16 september, does anyone even know the existence of this date? east msians always feel that they are not even msian."

"personally I believe the that Malaysia Independence Day to be celebrated on 16th of September instead of 31 August as the federation of Malaysia does not exist on 31 August1957."

Anyway, I am not pointing fingers that they are wrong or what so ever. People are entitled to voice out what they think. So here's my take on this.

Feelings towards Sept 16 1963 eh? Well, one thing for sure that I know now is that Sabah has a public holiday for that. And I should rejoice for it. :) . But what actually happen on that exact date 45 years ago for me is something that has changed the whole nation. Malaysia was born that time. I can never imagine how things will be like now if Sabah and Sarawak did not join Malaysia and never did gain independence through the merge.

Will these two states govern by their own and become very rich? Will we, Sabah be under the Phillipines ruling or will Indonesia declare these two states as theirs? There is so many what ifs and what will be, question marks everywhere. Some people speculated that we will do well on our own. Should we never join Malaya, our oil, gas, forest and other sources won't be exploited so much by the federal government. and we never become one of the backwards state in the country. This could be true.

Or it might not be. We never know. The past is the past. And history will never be re-written all over again.

For what I know, at this present time, as we are now celebrating the 51st year of independence and 45 years of the birthday of Malaysia, the minds and attitude of most people, any race or religion, are still not MERDEKA. Why do we still argue about rights of any race, supremacy, power, and the list goes on. As far as I seen, we are definitely not on the right track to create the Bangsa Malaysia that has been one of the main agenda in our country now.

Why there should be a difference between 31st Aug and 16th Sept? It is just a date anyway. Yes, it is only the date but the historical value of the date that made all the difference. After all the years, we spent going to school, enriching our minds, can't we realize that the both dates carries a lot of significance to every citizens?

Sabah and Sarawak gained their independence through the formation with Malaya therefore Malaysia was born. But, how can we neglect the independence of Malaya in the first place. Make it simpler like this, if Malaya never gain independence in the first place, Malaysia will never even exist in the map of the world now.

If that is too hard, just imagine that your parents never met in the first place (this is like Malaya's independence) , you will never be born into the world (and that is just like the existence of Malaysia now). The whole thing is connected. So, why fret about celebrating both dates. After all, there is gonna be public holidays anyway on both dates right? :)

The important thing now is to how to live with people with different backgrounds and ideology. It is not meant to be easy but at least we are trying to be the Bangsa Malaysia. We are the people, we are living in the present, if anyone feel that we need a change for the better, we shouldn't be talking about what SHOULD take place in the PAST. We should be thinking on what should be done NOW.

*is this too long? hehehe* Of course this was posted on the groups discussion board. But I have nothing to write on my blog today. So, just sharing lah ..hehe