Posting Merdeka - Part 3

I write with tears in my eyes folks, actually, only my right eye . Some nasty elements got to the eye this morning and it is now bloody red. My nose is running, i cannot say if it's from the sore eye or the freaking cold that I'm having. The throat's on fire, and chest so heavy with flam. Been coughing since yesterday.

The home's broadband has gone cuckoo since yesterday evening. It came back on for a couple of hours this morning then gone berserk again. And now it is back on for God knows how long this time around. So I did what most normal people would do in this kind of situation, stay in bed.

Farah's been at her parents for the last couple of days, down with some ailments of her own. The house is still in order but smelled of cat piss a little. Somehow I forgot to let Chicko out this morning as I locked myself in the bedroom. Heck, will deal with it tommorow.

Apart from all these, Merdeka day's celebration is approaching fast. Get the flags out some would say, or you would be considered a non patriotic citizen who show no love for the country you lived in, a point that I would always begged to differ. I see no point of hitching rows and rows of those small little flags on the roof of the car and then wheezing past the red lights honking away at the poor old uncle on the kapchai, and then cutting in into the queue, as if God has given him the liscence to break small little road laws. Just because he is a lot more patriotic than the ungrateful people like me, who has not one single flag on my old car.

I wonder how much extra booze are being prepped at the watering holes in the cities, for this coming extended weekend. Don't forget those patriotic people would need a couple of litres more alcohol than usual, so that they have the energy and might, to toast to the Merdeka cheers as the clock strikes 12.

The Police would also have so much fun this weekend. There would be more drunk drivers needing the stern telling offs, more Rempits' asses to kick, more money to make. I am not implying on bribery in the Royal Police, but the income from the summons on petty offences on the streets, which would definitely increase over the weekend.

General workers from the municipal council and city halls would also be busy, busy picking up after the street revellers. There would be tonnes of left behinds like coke cans, nasi lemak wrappers, empty Marlboro packets and used condoms at the Dataran Merdeka.

As with the previous celebrations, there would be parades, cultural shows, gala charity dinner shows, special TV programs and such during merdeka. All of which benefits all except the for the hardcore poor to whom, merdeka holiday is just another dragging day that they have to endure.

People with money would throng the shopping malls, spending their hard earned money on things they really don't need. Golfers like me would be at the golf course even before the sun risers. Petty traders are eager to earn their extra share of income from the ever willing week end spenders. Some would gladly make their way back to the kampungs on their brand new Persona or Myvis. Couple in love would take this opportunity to be discreet in the dark corners of the many beautiful parks in town. Some would just stay home and watch TV.

But whatever that we do on that day people, remember that Merdeka means nothing if it is just skin deep. It is more that a day of celebrations, it is a day to remember, for us all to remember, that merdeka is been bought by the tears and blood of ordinary people, people who were then had nothing more that a couple of ounces of rice to eat and a some hope. A hope that one day, they too would be Merdeka from poverty.

There are still those people out there in their little homes that might just be waiting to tumble, eating more or less the same little food that they have, just like people in the Pre Merdeka days. Reach out for them. Maybe the RM13.50 you might want to spend on buying the flag for merdeka can be much better used on those poor people. It can at least buy them a pack of Bernas Rice that could last them a week. Much longer than the little-made-in-Kepong flimsy flag would.

Happy Merdeka Folks.