1 Malaysia

[THIS IS AN OFFICIAL ACADEMIC ESSAY, WRITTEN BY ME! IT'S BAD. NO, IT'S MORE THAN BAD ACTUALLY WITH THOUSANDS OF GRAMMATICAL ERRORS, VOCAB USAGE ERRORS.PLEASE, DO NOT COMMENT ON THOSE PARTS =P]


We are different, yet we are united. We are 1 Malaysia!

“Kita satu bangsa,
Kita satu negara,
Kita satu matlamat;
Kita satu bangsa,
Satu negara,
Kita 1 Malaysia”[1]

            I kept tuning in and singing to that song each time the words 1 Malaysia comes across my mind. Deliberately created by a group of innovative Lim Kok Wing University students, it is undeniable that this avant-garde national song has officially become a new massive hit after our renowned national anthem, ‘Negaraku’. This tuneful ‘1 Malaysia’ song has attained a rapturous response in arousing the spirit of integrity among us, thanks to its splendid rendition and also inspiring lyrics. I still remember that for the past 54 years since we gained freedom from the British colonist, it is the spirit of country’s independence that keeps us united – to stand as one strong nation until today. Nevertheless, as time passes by, we are slowly transforming that outdated spirit into a better one, with its constant refrain: People First, Performance Now. The problem is that, most of us consider this matter frivolously, as if it has no other importance in this life. ‘1 Malaysia’ now seems to be merely treated as a tedious cliché or perpetual household term that holds no significant meaning in unifying us. Is it really so? In my point of view, I personally think that 1 Malaysia plays indeed a vital role in making us an integrated society. This can be achieved through the implementation of three simple concepts which are by being tolerant, by being virtuous and by being loyal.

            First of all, the spirit of 1 Malaysia instils the idea of tolerance among us, Malaysians. By being tolerant, it means that we are adapting comprehensively with everyone else to accept them as the way they are despite of their differences to us. As we are living in a multiracial country, we will encounter people from all creeds and races perennially in this life. They come from different backgrounds, lifestyles, religions and also thoughts which might be the same or vividly contrast to us. Therefore, in order to ensure the serenity in our community, we have to have a high level of tolerance towards everything that we deal with. Be considerate with each other, especially when it comes to the importance of particular races. The government has actually implemented myriads of approaches to meet the requirement of every race’s special needs. The most perceptible approach is the setting of public holidays, for example. Every parts of the community has its own public holidays such as Chinese New Year Break, Deepavali Break, Hari Raya Aildilfitri Break and so on. This is deliberately done as a proof of tolerance by our government towards the special needs of respective races. In short, 1 Malaysia helps to develop a tolerant and considerate society, thus making us live in harmony with each other.

            Next, 1 Malaysia nourishes the concept of being virtuous. To live in peaceful vicinity, we ought to create an upbeat and immortal vibrant mood among us. The question is, how can we create the euphoric feeling towards each other? It is by simply being virtuous and holding our virtues no matter whom we are dealing with and where we are. We often hear these late days such that imprudent youngsters act rudely towards the elders, while the elders act cockily towards the youngsters and good manners are likely nowhere to be seen! Alas, these bad scenarios are mushrooming greatly nowadays, because we do not put the virtuous concept as suggested by the spirit of 1 Malaysia into our concerns. To exemplify this situation, I once came across an uncle who aged more than half decade during my short journey to KL Sentral via LRT train recently. The train itself, as usual was crowded with people coming in non-stop from every pit-stops that we passed by. This particular uncle who seems to be very exhausted had earnestly asked for a place to sit from a teenager who was occupying the seat at that time. To my surprise, the boy adamantly said “No” to that request, when he actually seemed to be fit enough to offer his seat to the uncle! To make this matter worse, the uncle then initiated a great mouth war with the teenager by using abusive words, and for the teenager, for sure the same response is gleaned from his part. Even though they are of different ages and levels of maturity, once they lost their virtues and respects to each other, it will be useless and the approach to create a good relationship between those two generations will definitely end in vain. If we really make use of the courtesy concept of 1 Malaysia, this kind of situation will certainly not happen in our daily life.

            In addition to that, the launching of 1 Malaysia spirit also tries to develop the idea of loyalty among the Malaysians. If we fail to comprehend the real meaning of 1 Malaysia, it is inevitable that our country will slowly demolish to the extent it goes to another rule power’s hand to take over the management system. This prediction someway somehow seems to be sarcastic, but it is not impossible if we, the original dwellers do not give our utmost loyalty in protecting our own sole country. Let’s take a few minutes to reflect the many incidents that had taken place and dominated the head stories of all newspapers for these past few months. Illegal road demonstrations[2][3], the burning of the national flag ‘Jalur Gemilang’[4], the sarcasm of the national anthem ‘Negaraku’ [5]– these are a few perceptible examples of the situation showing that the people’s loyalty level are slowly decreasing in a subtle way. Either we realize it or not, we are actually at stake right now as we are on the verge of unity splitting. If we, the Malaysians are not loyal to our own country, who else will? 1 Malaysia nurtures our responsibilities to protect and dignify our country so that it is safe from various imminent threats out there. Therefore, to create an integrated and peaceful community, we have to initially instil the feeling of responsibility towards the country. This can simply be done by implementing the concept of loyalty as suggested by the spirit of 1 Malaysia.

            In a nutshell, we can create an integrated harmonious society among us by applying the concepts of 1 Malaysia spirit in our life. This spirit undoubtedly plays a fundamental role in nourishing the concept of tolerance, courtesy and also loyalty among us. If we do really understand these concepts in depth, it is an assurance that we can keep our county’s freedom and independence till the end. 1 Malaysia terms should not be treated lightly by us, especially the young generation. They are the ones who are going to lead the country in future, and I personally believe that it is still the spirit of 1 Malaysia that will eventually help them to keep the people united as 1 nation later on. In this context, two questions suddenly come into play. What will happen in the next upcoming 5, 50 or 500 years ahead to our country, if the netizens are not united? Is Malaysia still existed by that time? Have a think of it!

[5] http://www.pancing.net/index.php?topic=19608.0


Got 1 interesting video about 1 Malaysia actually. Unfortunately, it cannot be uploaded because it's too long.  But then, you may as well listen to this song, I mean, the original song (1 Malaysia by Lim Kok Wing) right here!







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