“WHAT does Merdeka Day mean to you?” At least once a year, this obligatory question is put to Peninsular Malaysians, and every year, like any coming-of-age milestone, to answer it requires some soul-searching. Fifty-seven years on, as an increasing majority of people in the peninsula comprise those born post-Merdeka, the original meaning and value of celebrating the day has changed. But, much like how Hari Raya celebrations are changing because extended families have become smaller and, for many, the “kampung” is now in the city, the concept of Merdeka must evolve with the times. So, perhaps the more appropriate question to ask is: “What does it mean to be merdeka?”
On a very simplistic yet very realistic level, to many, to be free is to be able to get on a plane without being stopped by Inland Revenue, to have paid off the mortgage or to have seen the youngest through university. As a community or as a people, to be free may mean to have the freedom to follow one’s conscience, to disagree, to criticise and to worship. So, rather than just give thanks for 57 years of being free from British colonial rule, we must look at what we have done with that hard-earned freedom since and whether we have added any value to it. Are we free to think, to speak, to love, to express ourselves or to just be? Are our civil liberties being expanded or are they shrinking? If what is being proposed by some quarters, including some rather worrying examples of expression policing, is anything to go by, then, it would seem that freedom is in regression.
Although this does not excuse it, part of the reason for this regression is the idea that our multicultural society is becoming more intolerant and fractious. Based only on the example of a few loud hatemongers, the theory is extrapolated to the many; on the assumption that all people of any specific community must all think and feel alike, and that those that don’t conform are not the “real” deal anyway. But, is this “disunity” real? Or, rather, are we using the right calipers of unity to calibrate it accurately? Certainly, the solidarity shown for MH370, MH17, the Thomas Cup finals and against the Kiki road rage issue are fine examples of Malaysians being united in spirit and values, but outside of these exceptional circumstances, in the in-between times, is there a unity worth celebrating? The answer to that depends on whether individual Malaysians have long-term in-depth real-life relationships with other Malaysians and whether they have faith that these relationships are the true measure of community relations. Is diversity to be shunned or to be celebrated? Is respect better given or earned by being apart or by being together and knowing each other? As with happy families, a happy people happens when everyone opens their hearts to making the relationship work.