Quick post : Merdeka Party Pooper

On Monday night, Saiffuddin, the kids and I did something that must have been the height of suburbia living : we went to IKEA to usher in Merdeka Day. The place was a pointilist canvas of people, cars, dogs, hot air balloon, red-blue-yellow big flags, yellow and blue small flags. Just outside the entrance of IKANO was a huge stage, where a hip-hop or rap group was performing and if you close your eyes and ignore the humidity you really couldn't tell if you're in a streetmall concert in LA or Jamaica or Manila.(I hear they have rap groups there too) The two lead singers (okay, it maaay have been Too Phat but since both of them were bald, I really can't tell) were going yo yo yo the way rap singers all over the world do, and almost midnight, they made us shout the countdown.

"Why doesn't this feel right?", I thought. Maybe I'm jaded, out of touch as it were, with the current tastes in music. Notions of what would have constituted a better, patriotic welcome to TigaPuluh Satu Ogos soon evaporated : the whole family sat on the kerb, crane- necked, mouth wide open, as seemingly hundreds of fireworks sprouted pixie dust and glitter onto the night sky. After the pyrotechnics, the rap singers called on everyone to stand up straight and sing the National Anthem. We stood, hands by our sides, thumbs downwards and we sang as loud as we can -- while many many others turned towards the car-parks and the doors, back to shopping and their sated lives. Show's over, without a doubt.

The next morning, I saw on TV, the National Day Parade in patriotic overdrive. Men, women and children in red and blue and yellow garb were swaying in cadence to KeranaMu Malaysia.
And I thought, "Why doesn't this feel right?"





mokciknab muttered at 12:19 pm ~ ~