Thought for National Day

Dear Friends,

The saddest thing about this Merdeka -- a day to commemorate the day when we finally threw off the colonial yoke, and assumed self-government -- is the sorry reminder of the degree to which we are now under a home-grown yoke as demeaning as the colonial one.

did our grandfathers and grandmothers, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, our predecessor Malayans and Malaysians intend this when they threw off colonial rule -- that one day we'd become beholden to a coterie of businessmen and their political patrons?

Is Merdeka about the most boring video-conference between leaders who have little of substance to say except to pay obeisance to a latter-day tuan? or should it a reminder of the blood, sweat and tears shed in the name of independence and self-rule, the rule of the people -- a rule announced in those demonstrations against the Malayan Union and in those warnings to the rulers that they either pay heed to the people's will or be swept into the dustbin of history?

our individual and sectional sufferings or sacrifices, individual and sectional injustices, pale in comparison to our present collective rape at the hands of a ruling circle intent only on the preservation of its power and the well-being of its friends.

more than ever, not only do we need to commemorate the real meaning of Merdeka, we have to find the wherewithal to carry through to completion another struggle to recover the spirit of Merdeka and to carry through to completion the original impetus that made so many sacrifice so much.

pelanuk