Independence Day? Really?

Assalamualaikum and good day to you reader…

Yesterday marked the 56th National Day for my country. As always, this date, 31st August always bring some sort of controversy to the people in my country.

Photo courtesy of www.theborneopost.com

Also one of the latest update for this year is that my state had also somehow unearthed that it gained its freedom from the Brooke Dynasty on the 22nd July 1963. Ok… One of my questions will be, why on earth do we get to know this only today? I did ask around and most of the people (those who are close to me only) did not even know about this! Forget about asking the younger generation, I went straight to people of my parents and grandparents age regarding this issue and they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS!

Here are some links to the 22nd July:
LINK1 LINK2 LINK3

Some people argue that someone had somehow added a new page into the history. As usual followed by the statement that the anti government people work is behind all this. Some people claimed that since history is written by those in power, they had purposely left this bit out. If this is true, I am not sure what the main reason for doing such thing is at the moment.

However, for sure the date 31st August is not the correct date to be celebrated by the whole country IF we are harping about promoting unity. Uniting people need to be with something that everybody in the country can relate to. Something that is similar with majority of the people in the country. Why not 16th September? The day when my present country came to be as it is now? The day when the Tanah Melayu, Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore were united into one country, Malaysia? It is the day of UNITY!

I am not sure what is wrong with the people nowadays… Not to disrespect anybody, but 31st August IS ONLY FOR SEMENANJUNG MALAYSIA! What does it got to do with Sabah and Sarawak? Some people did argue that without that, Malaysia would not even exist… Hmmmm… Well, do look into the possibility that Sabah and Sarawak would not even join Malaysia since we can stand on our own. Brunei declined the offer to do so. If Sarawak and Sabah did that, could we possibly be another country on our own? Countries maybe?

 If we talk about IF the possibilities are endless! But since event had passed, should not we focus on NOW? Why the 16th September was never highlighted in the first place? Why it is treated as if it is of no significant? No importance? To achieve unity, we should give and take. We cannot hold each other hands if our hands are full of other things that we think are much more important than the unity that we proudly claim to be our most important value.

Our history need to be studied and researched again just so that the REAL history can be properly shared with our future generation.