If I could live through it all again..

Growing up in a ‘cowboy’ town……

Occasionally, in my moments of solitude, my memory would travel through time and takes me back to the times when I was that little boy that lived in this small ‘cowboy’ town of Tampin, Negri Sembilan, a border town at the southern-tip Main Range of Peninsular Malaysia. And most times the play-back of those memories would go back to the times of my life during the 60’s. And life as I knew it then was simply laid back, easy and peaceful. Not too complicated, complex and fast-paced as it is today. I was born in the early 50’s and just a couple of years before colonized Malaya gained independence from the British colonial rule.  But it was during my formative years in the 60’s that I learned the most of life’s basics. Perhaps that is why pieces of these memories never failed to make its play-backs repeatedly in my head even till this day. And each time those memories come back to mind, I’d simply cherish them all the same as how I have always enjoyed watching for the hundredth times the late Tan Sri P.Ramlee’s ‘Bujang Lapok’ movie series.

The Seven “Wonders” of Malaysia….as we always know it and forever there to stay

               Malaysia….ah yes, for so many reasons, it’s truly the land to live in and die for. To those who probably don’t already realized this, being a Malaysian is so God- blessed. We can always pride ourselves that this land of abundant opportunities is the land of our birth. There are just too aplenty to so many good things for which even the deaf and blind could vouch for. It’s so very vibrant, colorful, spirited and soulful, progressive and yet rich and steep in traditions with its melting pot of cultures from the co-existence and inter-mingling of its multi-races, religions and languages. It is also a paradise for food and shopping too. Not many nations in this world could take pride of such stature. But still, somehow and sadly too, some “clueless intellectuals” who themselves are Malaysian born and bred take pride to say the otherwise. To this day I still cannot comprehend why is it that this group of Malaysians especially some from the younger breed do not feel strongly about this fact but instead they take pride to tarnish the image of the nation to the rest of the world. To this group of people, if I could only say this; ……save your provoking and rebellious thoughts, your vociferous and raucous cry for freedom of speech, your consistent criticisms towards the present legitimate government that was itself elected through the ballot boxes, your unethical opposing ways etc..etc..etc….NOT until you have travelled the world and set foot to some god-forsaken land and see for yourself what others have to do merely to survive. For the record, I have been on numerous times to these lands and hence truly qualify me to express this and differ from your negative stand. See with your own eyes the hardships, sufferings, poverty and a hundred kinds of social ills and failures that people of these countries have to come to term with and how the governments of these countries have failed miserably to overcome those problems. Perhaps then (if you people are not such a numbskull) you would truly understand what a backward country really represents and all negativities associating it. Also please realize the fact that there is surely no such thing as a perfect country with perfect governance and this beloved land of ours is no exception to such imperfections. Get real, please!