I’ve been wondering what to say on Merdeka Day, reminding myself of that old adage “if you’ve got nothing good to say, then shut up”. On past national days, I’ve always woken up bemused, happy for the holiday, but not quite sure how significant it was - and is. When I was in Singapore some time back, I used to be fed primordialist facts during the course of their National Education program; Sang Nila Utama and blah blah blah. I’ve always found such ‘foundational myths’ amusing and I wonder about our country’s own.

Because Malaysian nationalism, as far as I understand it (and I admit that my understanding is shallow) began with independence. If there are foundational myths in existence in Malaysia - and I have no doubt there are such myths - I sometimes wonder if they would sound as incredulous as the ones promulgated by Singapore. The spectre of modern Malaysia concerns me more, and always have. Some would argue that our historicity begins not with our birth, but with the birth of our ancestors and their lives leading up to our own and that I should pay attention to where we’ve come from. I think that’s laudable, but ultimately futile; it’s true that what we are today is the sum of communal (in the broadest sense) experiences, but the plain fact of the matter remains that we all live in the here and now.

What’s interesting is the character of our own nationalism. If you want to go deeper into the kinds of nationalism that persists in both early times and modern societies, go here. What’s interesting is that early forms of nationalism are rather ethnocentric in nature. How does such a concept fare in a culturally diverse nation as ours? Modern theories have, instead of focusing on nationalism as a natural offshoot of ethnocentrism, abstracted factors implied by communal integrity such as a ‘common vision’ and the general idea of civic loyalty to encompass the word ‘nationalism’, and this is instructive. At least, this particular development in thought on nationalism gives credence to the increasingly obvious fact - at the time and self-evident now - that a nation consists not only of one communal group, but several, typically.

In Malaysia, as it is in Singapore, there is a professed understanding of the Malaysian identity as being a conglomeration of ethnic groups. However, what is professed is rarely reflected in reality. This morning when I woke up, I caught the national day celebrations presumably in KL and what I saw confirmed this; for those interested, I’m sure there will be repeat broadcasts of the procession, so you have an opportunity to see for yourself.

Happily, I think these images present a more accurate picture of Malaysia in celebration. I go through the pictures, thinking about the celebrations not caught on camera.

Perhaps this will be our future. Happy Birthday, Malaysia.