Golden Anniversary

After attending the Merdeka Awards Launch I began to visualize the changes that have taken place over the 50 years of independence, and when I thought about it even more I realized that it was really what I saw and, experienced and went through all my life. It was about all the changes that have taken place around me. I also realized the impact these changes have on my life and how it was shaped.

I can still remember the excitement in my house over the merdeka or independence issue. My mum and late dad were both very active in the then current political issues to the extent that their lives were dedicated towards the achievements of the time and maintenance thereafter. Pre-merdeka, dad would be working as an auditor during the day and mum as a religious schoolteacher and in the evenings and night they would be away attending meetings and other functions related to the political movement. Dad was later transferred to the Marines department as Deputy Port officer and Mum rose to be the headmistress of the school she taught in.

I was born in the era of Japanese occupation. Life was difficult then I was told. I practically lived on tapioca as rice and milk were scarce then. Mum would boil tapioca and add extra water, the excess was used to feed me supplementing mum’s breast milk. Things changed slightly when the British took over after the Japanese left and I could vaguely remember those times. Various canned foods and other daily needs and goods were available and almost all British made. We had none of the luxuries of life we have now. Commuting was always on foot although dad had a bicycle to ease his movement. We could count the number of cars on the road then and that too belonged only to the prominent ones in society. When I started schooling I had to walk to school every day. When I was halfway through primary school a bus service in the town was started and that eased our commuting needs somewhat, but the buses they had were few and it took a long while for one to catch the next bus if one missed it. So I ended walking to school everyday just the same ha ha!

In the process of my growing up through pre and primary school I saw a lot of changes in the way things were done around me. Development slowly took place, starting with the basic infrastructures like piped water into the houses, flush toilets, electricity supply into the house and so on. Telephones were those for the public strategically located around the town and were the oversized ones like those you see in the movies of the forties and fifties!! Vandalism was not known then!! So, you can imagine how the people aligned themselves to the authorities of the day, the British and the Malay Administrators. We were so used to obtaining water from wells, lighting up kerosene lamps in the evenings, toilets being located outside of our houses with the night-soil man coming around to collect our toilet ‘spoils’ daily. Hence when these changes took place people were just elated. We thought of them as wonderful and unbelievable developments.

Campaigns for independence started then. The leading political party of the day, of which my mum and dad were heavily involved in, went around in their campaigns to garner support for independence. The support, I think, was overwhelming and the three major races in the country worked together to achieve the objectives. Although the communists that were anti British were strongly fighting to liberate the country through its communist ideologies the general population was not in their favour. They were literally ‘hounded’ into the jungles and they fought the British from there.

Then came independence, Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka shouted the first Prime Minister followed by resounding cries from the throng of people gathered there. I heard the proceedings over the radio at home. I was as excited as my parents were. I was about 13 years old then. I knew what it was all about but had no inkling of what was to follow. My friends and I shouted Merdeka but did not really realize the implications. My dad and mum told me that Merdeka was for us, for my generation to carry on the torch of independence and for future generations to reap the benefits. It had not much impact on me then. All I knew, or rather was told, was that the ruling political party had the mandate to run the country without intervention of the British. We were on our own to chart our destiny my parents said. You must study hard, educate yourself so that you can contribute to society later on. Slowly, as I grew up I realized those words that my parents told me. I realized how important education was. I slowly realized that my knowledge and skills helped me to shape my working life while at the same time gave me the opportunity to participate in nation building and the well being of society. My parents’ involvement in community work, political work and so on gave them a good standing in society. These attitude and attributes somehow brushed on me as well, such that I would voluntarily involve myself in community work whenever I get the opportunity.

Independence has been obtained, 50 years on now, and the time of nation building has passed. We are surrounded by the fruits reaped out of the nation building. Now is the time to carry on the nation building and its maintenance. We need to sustain the chain of development and advance forward to better things. What we thought was a wonderful facility once, like that public telephone, or the piped water in to the house, has become an ordinary thing now. What was wonderful and unbelievable when I was young is very basic now. The era has changed and improved our quality of life. It is the continuance of discovering the wonderful and the unbelievable that should be the order now, such that the chain can continue, and that our grandchildren can then have at least their basics then from what we now discover as wonderful and unbelievable……. Am I making sense? Ah well…… I am entitled to some nostalgia and also dreams ………. May the Almighty continue to guide us always…..

Some Very Very Old Pictures .......

















MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Petaling Jaya.