I'm Proud To Be Malaysian Because...

Dear Readers,
In about 2 days time we will be celebrating our beloved country's 53rd year of Independence. Whenever the month of August comes around there will always be patriotic-themed ads shown on tv and heard on radio. We also see and hear people, whether individuals of the public or local celebs professing why they are proud to be Malaysian. The answer is always, ALWAYS one, or at most, all of the following three reasons:

1. Malaysia is a country where all races can live in harmony and come together as a nation.
2. Malaysia has an abundance of foods where you can get Indian, Malay and Chinese cuisines all in one roof.
3. Malaysians are so in harmony that we can wear each other's traditional costumes.

United regardless of color..

I myself am proud of us being a racially harmonious country. We had our bumps and scrapes in our quest towards acquiring unity but we did it and it 's not something that was easy to achieve. As a food lover I too enjoy foods from various races and adore fusion foods. I am also glad that I don't have to go to India if I want to purchase or wear a Sari costume and am confident that if I wear a Cheongsam to a formal occasion, I would be greeted with smiles and "Nice lah..." instead of frowns of dissaproval (unless of course, if they disapprove the thight high slit*wink*).

Food, glorious food!

Our beautiful Traditional costumes..

However... I personally think that saying you're proud to be a Malaysian because of the food and traditional costumes are a bit... well, lazy. Although it is an element to be proud of but it's as if you don't really give too much thought to your answer. As for the racially harmonious line, although it's true but it's like a default answer that has been overused to death, a safe and convenient answer that will always be right.

For me, aside from the 3 answers above, I am proud to be Malaysian because:

We Achieved Independence Peacefully
In my opinion the way we achieved Independence is a true testimony on how peaceful our people are. It would have been easy to succumb to anger and used bloodshed but we achieved it through negotiation. Imagine that! How many countries have done that? None as far as I know.

Slowly But Surely
We have come a long way since 53 years ago. Although some may say that development in Malaysia is slow but as far as I know we never stood still, never stopped proggressing forward. Slowly but surely we move to improving ourselves. We can see it in our education, our economy and that is just to name a few sectors.

Malaysia Boleh
A lot of people scorn at this line. Maybe because when we look ourselves up on a globe or in an Atlas, we see are a small country and feel pretty... well, small. But Malaysia Trully Boleh in my books because if not then Jimmy Choo wouldn't be one of the most sought-after shoe designers in Hollywood, Datuk Michelle Yeoh wouldn't be acting in the bigscreen, Datuk Nicole David wouldn't be a World Champion in squash 3 times (or is it 4 times? Anyway, that's proof it's not a fluke) and we wouldn't have a flag perched on top of Mount Everest TWICE.

There are a lot of other reasons why I'm proud to be Malaysian but suddenly I'm getting a bit emotional typing this. Gasp! I'm not usually this patriotic. Oh well, people can change I guess. Anyway, I'd like to wish all Malaysians Selamat Hari Merdeka. Cheers!

Terima Kasih Malaysia!