Patroitism in the single dimension

No one may have joined him in his cries for "Merdeka" yesterday at Parliament, but Lim Kit Siang's point didn't go unheard. A story published in the New Straits Times today said:

CRIES of "Merdeka" rang seven times through parliament yesterday as Lim Kit Siang tried to prove a point on patriotism.

NST says "tried." I say, point well taken.

Even as Malayan Peninsula begins its next 50 years of independence, the concept of patroitism still takes on a one-dimensional perspective.

For most Malaysian school-children, myself included, singing patroitic songs is almost a guaranteed childhood experience. I remember standing under the hot sun singing "Malaysia Berjaya" and "Demi Negara"at a bunch of teachers sitting in the shade.

Of course, in secondary school it became "Wawasan 2020" and a couple of other songs that I can't recall.

Someone believed that singing Patroitic songs would make us more patroitic. Oh, and we were taught that when such songs were sung, we'd need to stand up erect to show our patroitism.

Veteran actor-director Jo Kukathas once poked fun in her parody "Atomic Jaya", stating that Malaysian's could invent a new patroitic song every time they had something to hide or had a cause they needed to rally people around.

But patroitism is more than just a song and dance. Sure, it's easy to get people to say "we love our nation" and wear the Malaysian flag with "pride" but that's as far as it usually goes.

Not many Malaysians are too concerned about our nation and that shows from the lack of interested voters. A paltry 12 million voters in the last election showed just how much people cared about our Nation's future.

This is not good for the country. If we want to be Malaysians, we need to start caring about issues, challenging the status quo if it isn't right and ensuring that the appointed public officials are doing their job.

It's time to vote. And vote intelligently.