Terkenang Raya dulu-dulu

Salam all, after the various sandiwara murah and the 'make you throw up' news and snippets it would be nice to look forward to Raya. This year spending it in Kuala Kangsar is definitely something to look forward to.

It's always a special moment to spend Raya balik kampung. Somehow Raya in KL doesn't feel like Raya all that much. The atmosphere is too sterile. Pergi Masjid pun sebab besar sangat (Shah Alam), I end up catching only a few faces yang selalu jumpa masa tarawikh or those 'kampung-less" crowd or yang kampung dia kat KL (... "hang beranak kat Chow Kit ka" is my usual comment). But as the years go by, the usual faces yang kita selalu nampak kat masjid kampung pun dah makin tak ada. Yang pergi dulu dah tak nampak ... (kalau nampak haru jugak). Member-member yang kalah dengan bini pasal nak raya kat kampung pun tak nampak, come to think of it, ada le dekat bertahun-tahun tak nampak batang hidung depa.

Being melancholy ni macam teringat cerita Abdulla Rafi berHari Raya (karya Abang Mamat Khalid). Rasa macam Abdulla Rafi bila dah tua pulak.

Beraya lepas ke kubur pun dah start to run out of houses nak visit. Dulu kalau balik kubur dengan Tok, ada route compulsory yang kena lalu. Kena pergi rumah kawan2 Tok, adik beradik MakTok, great grand auntie dsb. Bila dah ramai tak ada ... lepas balik kubur ada drop by 3 rumah dah sampai rumah balik.

This might sound cruel, but one of the things I do not miss is budak sekolah Talang datang beraya. Dulu sebab Ayah jadi cikgu kat sana (yang agak popular jugak, if I do say so myself), tak berenti renti budak datang sampai rasa macam kita ni kena ikat kat sinki basuh pinggan. My brother pulak kerja jaga duit raya ... used to be 20sen dah 50 sen by end of 1982 (last raya sebelum belah ke Melbourne). He was good at jaga duit raya ... ingat muka sapa yang datang dua kali.

I have to apologise again to my brother (every Raya ... part ini jadi wajib), for completely finishing his stock of bunga api in 1982 yang dia simpan sebab sayang nak main. Just imagine how I completely finished it playing with my friends from Kulim sebab boring maut malam tu sebelum balik maktab. Nak make it up susah dah sikit sebab takut masuk lokap beli bunga api.

But nothing stays the same ... As it should not anyway. But sometimes ... I just wish a little bit of good old days remains. Maybe it's time to make this memorable for the kids so that they can remember 'their' good old days.

31st August or 16 September ... Why does it matter?

All these talk raised by the recently annointed leader of the PR and the debate that arises ... actually makes my blood rise, and the food that I ate during 'sahur' rise up as well.

On 31st August 1957 the Federated States of Malaya was formed. 11 states in all. We didn't have Sabah, Sarawak, Wilayah Persekutuan (KL, Labuan or Putrajaya) then. Neither did we (or we eventually) have Singapore. But that was the beginning of this independent country and the parliament and the government that forms this country of ours.

Now it can be argued (and incessantly argued until I feel like throwing up...) that Malaysia was not formed until 16 September 1963. Well actually there are other issues as well, the Malaysia that was formed on that date didn't last past 1965 when Singapore left. So do we celebrate the date that Singapore left as the date that Malaysia is truly formed. But what about Wilayah Persekutuan? It wasn't created until 1 February 1970. The citizens of Wilayah would cry foul then. What about WP Labuan and Putrajaya ... don't they count?

The above just demonstrate how silly this argument is. To the leader of the PR, the much looked upon (by you!) united States of America (note the uncapitalised 'u') was declared on 4th July 1776. But there was a war of Independence that went on until 1785 (and actually was started in 1775, when the revolutionaries seized control of these states from the British). Then. there were only 13 colonies (states) that went to form "these united States of America". The other states (some from France, Mexico, Spain) formed the union of 50 states by joining in one by one until the last one on August 21st, 1959 (after Malaysia was independent). That state being the former Republic of Hawaii. Maybe the leader of PR might consider asking his good friend to make 21/8 the National Day of USA.

The operative word in our celebration on 31 August is that it is the National Day / Hari Kebangsaan. Not Independence Day. Why can't we celebrate that day as all our National Day ... irrespective of actual time. It is after all a symbol?

The leader of PR has better things to do than this ... it reeks too much of political grandstanding for votes. Get to work, man!