The Delayed Verdict

I've been thoroughly absent I know.

Long story short I'm in London. Been here for a week now and will be back home in 3 weeks.

Anyways, this post isn't about London. This post is about my promised verdict and well, I've reached my conclusion.

First of all, the Dataran Merdeka celebration itself was not something to shout about.

It was nicely decorated but too disorganized. It seemed like the Merdeka celebration was more of a Barisan Nasional propaganda shindig really. There was no fireworks at the stroke of midnight and plenty of ass groping to go around.

Be that as it may, it was all part of the experience.

And at that point, despite singing the national anthem with all my heart, I wasn't that proud to be a Malaysian.

But as the week followed I decided to get tickets to the Malaysian International Tattoo show organized by the Ministry of Defense in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism.

Not knowing what to expect I was blown away.

Malaysians are known to never be on time with anything. They never stick to the program.

But this show started at precisely at 2030 hours and damn! despite the rain the show went on and it went on beautifully. They knew where to go and what to do and though it was drizzling somehow the bomoh hujan (or perhaps God was being kind) made it stop! although it seemed like a propaganda to join the military but hey! it looked so cool I actually thought about joining the military! surprise surprise! hehe.

Anyways, the best part would have to be the fact that even the Agong wasn't late.

So when the national anthem came out I sang, and this time, I was truly proud to be Malaysian. To top it all off they sang One Golden Celebration at the end of the show with a spectacular fireworks display to finish.

Bravo!

Despite Malaysia being run by one party for so many years, I still think they've helped us. Sure there seems to be plenty of political scandals here and there but name me a country that doesn't have one?

It's too bad that only a few thousand people could witness the spectacularness of the International Tattoo show because I am sure as hell it would have made many other Malaysians proud.

Why didn't the government think of that? I will never know.

Perhaps we should all function like the military? Or perhaps we should let the guys who came up with the concept of this event run all government organized events?

It's not fair to say Malaysia is crap because everywhere is crap, if you tell yourself it is.

Alas, I reflected, compared and contrasted and well, there's no place like home and I am indeed truly proud to be Malaysian.

The End