Merdeka! merdeka!! merdeka!!!

This year, 2010 is a busy year. As a doctor, we were warned by the Selangor State Director of Health on the outbreak of dengue in Selangor. We, in the paediatric are well prepared for the circumstances of many admissions to the ward. But the most exciting about 2010 is fasting month falls in the month of August, our merdeka month. Month for you to be more patriotic in your thinking and act. We love our country very much the way we love ourselves. All of us should, if we call ourselves a Malaysian. This year, we are going to celebrate our 53rd merdeka year. During this period of time, our leaders keep on changing depending on the election result. Whatever it is, all of our leaders, their aim is almost the same, trying their very hard to bring up Malaysia to the eye of the world. It is just the methods and approaches that they used are different. They want to maintain the stability and improve the economy of the country. Different leaders have different styles and vision as well as mission. Under this current leader, we are talking about One Malaysia or Satu Malaysia where the motto is "rakyat diutamakan, pencapaian didahulukan. I read in the newspaper about this concept. I don't really get it till now. My view is, I think all of our previous leaders have the same mission. It is just that, it was not written on paper. Any development they make, is for people of this country. Us. We, as the citizen of our beloved country, Malaysia enjoy all the good things that our leaders have done. Of course, if we want to do anything, we will do something that is achievable. Don't waste our time trying to achieve something impossible to achieve at this current time because after spending so much of money, time, effort and resources, at the end of the day, all the these will go into the drain. A lot of money will be wasted which are people's money.

I want to share my view about language. 53 years merdeka, it is not a short period of time. There are many changes were made to improve our education level in this country. We read in the newspaper, several changes need to be done to achieve the best educational status of the people. I don't know whether we are progressing well or regressing. Lets talk about Malay language, our national language. During my primary and secondary school, all the students, Malay, Chinese and Indian could speak malay very well. I have many friends from other races in school as well as in my village. We were so close with each other. No worries. Now, when it's come to my children, they have no opportunity to have friends from different races except 1 or 2 that they met in the boarding school. Even when they entered university, they don't really know how to make friend with their colleagues from different races. I really pity them. Some of them can't even speak Malay well despite being accepted to the university. Well,I am saying not all of them. When we talk about national language, we expected all of these students should be able to speak well in bahasa. My daughter said to me one day "Ibu, I really got fed up with my group because they speak Chinese among them selves during the discussion just because they are the majorities in my group. How about us, me and my Indian friend. Why can't they speak the language that everyone can understand". To some people, probably this is a small matter but to me it is an issue. This is happening everywhere I guess. What has gone wrong?. Well, we are free to speak whatever language we want but when it's come to the group discussion, we should know what bahasa we should be using so that everyone can understand. Insensitivity like this basically developed from the primary and secondary school. Here, we are talking about one Malaysia. Together, we are one. I thought, with the development of good school curriculum, this scenario won't happen. Bahasa Melayu is the national language and it should be the duty of all Malaysian, if you call yourself Malaysian, to learn. I meant all of us. English is the second language, so learn it by hard.

Let me tell you a story. Recently, there was a Chinese boy, 8 years old admitted to my ward. He was suspected to have leukemia. He was such a lovely boy. He understand Malay and English well but can't say the words. We were having problem with the mother because we wanted to explain to her about the child's condition and the plan for him, we could not do it because she said "tak pandai Melayu dan tak pandai olang putih". I asked her"sikit-sikit boleh tak atau kita cakap dengan suami". She said,"suami kerja". Then, I looked around to find my houseman. I have two Chinese HO. So, I call the first one to explain to the mother the situation of the child. To my surprise, she can't speak mandarin or any other Chinese languages. I call the second HO. Initially, I didn't want to call him because I didn't trust him at all to convey the message to the mother. I was worried that he would gave a wrong information. However, I had no choice. True enough, after the explanation done by my second HO, the mother requested to go home with the child. I talked to the mother again in Malay and persuaded her to stay for the sake of the child. I called my medical student, the last resort, a Chinese to talk to the mother to make her understand the situation, but to my disappointment, he also couldn't speak Chinese. "shame on you" I scolded my student. The mother is a young mother. I reckon she must has gone to school because she was reading a Chinese newspaper and magazine. 53 years of independent and yet we still have this scenario. What had went wrong? Whose fault is this? Which direction are we heading for? We are no here no there. By right, anyone who are born here should know at least 2 languages. One, their mother tongue language and the other one is our national language which is Bahasa Melayu. Is it so difficult to speak bahasa? If yes, why the Nepalist or the Bangladeshies or even the Chinese foreigners can speak bahasa only in a few months they are here in our country, but not us, who are born, eat, work and stay here for the rest of our life. I wonder.......??!!