Malaysia: Patriotism or Nationalism?

Guong

Today is the Independence Day of Malaya. As I'm sitting here writing this post, I can hear a lot of fireworks sound blasting in the sky. Quite a noisy night.

One thing for sure, our government STILL propagating a very misleading information regarding today's Independence Day. It is NOT the Independence Day for Malaysia. There is no such thing as Independence Day of Malaysia.

Malaysia was formed in 16 September, 1963. I've blog about it last year.

Now, as the title says, Patriotism or Nationalism? What are these two words mean anyway?

1. Do you feel proud of your country achievements and also recognize its shortcoming yet still love your country? If you answered Yes, that's Patriotism.
2. Do you love your country no matter what and put its interest above other country or nation? If you answered Yes, that's Nationalism.
3. Do you show your love for your country by doing something to make it better? If you answered Yes, that's Patriotism.
4. Do you show your love for your country by talking (only) about its achievement? If you answered Yes, that's Nationalism.
5. Do you feel proud of your National Flag and has goosebumps when seeing it raised along with your National Anthem? If you answered Yes, that's Patriotism.
6. Do you feel proud waving your National Flag or sticking it on your car during Independence Day? If you answered Yes, that's Nationalism.

Now here is the problem. Malaysian tend to confuse our self when it comes to loving our country. We talk about Patriotism but our action portray Nationalism. Nationalism towards West Malaysia.

How? By distorting history facts on this Merdeka Celebration. It's Malaya not Malaysia Independence Day. What sadden me is, the younger generations are fed with this distorted facts each years. A lot of them even thought Sabah and Sarawak got her independence through the forming of Malaysia which was NOT.

We talk about how great Malaysia has been since achieving independence yet we fail to see it was Malaya achievement not Malaysia.

No, we are not pointing fingers or blaming others for our shortcoming yet it's a reality it never was a Malaysia, just Malaya.

I love Malaysia. But the problem is, we were never considered as Malaysian.

..................Except during Election Day.

H1N1: It's getting out of hand..in Malaysia

Guong

It was May 15th that Malaysia got her first H1N1 case. 4 month have pass since then yet the death rate in Malaysia is 4 times the global fatality rate?

Why does other countries such as India have lesser fatality cases (24 deaths) compared to Malaysia? Something must have gone terribly wrong.

From what I've observed for the past months,

1. Schools were still opened even though there are cases of H1N1 infected students reported.
2. People still went for the movies. Transformers, Ice Age 3, Harry Potter, G.I Joe to name a few.
3. One can see only a few wear the surgical mask when shopping, commuting or traveling. Airports included.
4. Misleading info not long ago about how H1N1 spread due to 'name conflict'.

Now, as a citizen, the only thing we can do are to stay healthy and practice good hygiene. Forget the Mega Sell Carnival 2009.

And for all of the politicians out there, please don't politicize this pandemic.