. 
 

 "Hi, I don't see any Jalur Gemilang (national flag) on your car yet?,I asked
 my friend. "Well, no mood lah this time...",replied my friend.I told him I am
 getting the free flag from Petronas near my house. Every year I put on our
 flag on my car and I fly the National flag at my house on the
 Merdeka(Independence) Day. I did this to tell myself and my kids that we are
 Bangsa Merdeka (independent nation) and we must treasure Merdeka.

 A few years ago, I was very happy to note that so many people were flying
 the national flag a few weeks before Merdeka Day. They went all the way on
 their own and paid for the flags. However, this year around, the government
 and body corporates  need to launch campaign to get people to fly the flag.
 IMHO, no what our political beliefs are, we must celebrate our Merdeka.
 Merdeka belongs to the people and not to any political party. Yes, we did
 have a political crisis and economic crisis as well; but that should not
 affect our feelings toward our country.

 When I asked my friend why he is not in the mood to fly the flag, he said,"
 The economy is no good ,and also politics is bad." "Well, in my view,we had  good
 time in the first seven years of the 90's.And now,we are going through the
 rough patch and I hope we could ride the bad weather and be out of the woods
 in two or three years time. In the life of a person or a nation, none will
 have all the good time and all the bad time.When you are so used to all the
 good time,when the bad time comes we feel so bad about it. Honestly, I don't
 blame him or anyone. I do have my share and feel the same way when my
 business was badly affected by the economic slowdown, but when it comes to
 our Merdeka Day, we must be united as a nation.

 In the event if we cannot reconcile  our feelings, let's celebrate our
differences in the name of our beloved country Malaysia Merdeka!!!
It is just like eating 'nasi campur'- we may have different 'lauk', but we eat the
same rice and sit on the same table.
Let's raise and fly the  flags..........MERDEKA,MERDEKA,MERDEKA!

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24-08-2001