The Truth

I find it interesting that instead of referring to August 31 as the National Day, as the celebration is officially known, more and more people are calling it Independence Day. The fact is that only West Malaysia, then the Federation of Malaya that included Singapore, gained independence from British rule on 31 August 1957. East Malaysia only became independent through the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963.

While we may argue ad infinitum whether August 31 or September 16 should rightly be celebrated as our National Day, reducing August 31 to merely the Independence Day only serves to highlight the gap between the two sides of our nation separated by more than just the South China Sea.

“May you live in interesting times” may not be an actual ancient Chinese curse, but few will dispute that we are living in an interesting time in the history of our young nation, and it is beginning to look very much like a curse. Fifty-one years on, we are still struggling with our identity, perhaps more than ever.

In the meantime the new political reality is creating a lot of confusion. Our past, our history is being questioned. Have we been wrong all this while? How can we move forward to the future if we cannot be certain of who we were, who we are? There are many stories, conflicting stories about everything, all claiming to be the truth.

Of course, there is only one truth, out there, but we are all really like the blind men with the elephant grasping with half-truths. Everybody claims of having an open mind and thinks of knowing better than others but do we really? After all, we only see what we want to see.

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.

Andre Gide (1869-1951)

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NOTE: Hazy out of whack insomnia entry.