It is on this faithful day – August 31st 1957 when Tunku Abdul Rahman bellowed out the word Merdeka three times from what I remember from the video they showed us without fail in primary school. And thus began Malaysia’s independence from colonial rule. So happy birthday Malaysia.
The word merdeka is kinda cool I reckon. It’s Malay for independence. It’s kinda like Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Braveheart yelling FREEDOM! But in my childish immaturity, upon my return to Malaysia after a brief spiel at primary school in Australia, it sounded like “My Dick ah!”
![merdeka[edit2]](http://jemiam.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/merdekaedit2.jpg)
Them speech bubbles took freaking ages to make in Ms Paint and they just look like such a chopshop job but that just reflects how immature I can be… HAHA
In all seriousness I love Malaysia for what it is superficially worth at least. Don’t know too much to say anything deep about it. Especially in regards to its political climate which is probably the focus of many discussions when talking about Malaysia. It’s quite interesting though, especially from an expert raconteur such as Tan.
It is the home of all good food. Do not believe any Singaporeans that claim they have the better food. It’s only because they try to be all cool with this shop having the best bak kut teh, and that one with the hokkien mee and what not. Just eat in Malaysia, everything is bagus regardless where you go. And not to mention a lot more better value than Singapore. I remember the first time I had Prata in Singapore it was like a tiny piece that is probably the size of my palm for a dollar. In Malaysia (where it is correctly referred to as Canai)I was buying twice the size if not more of that for 50sen.
I will not apologise for the inevitable comparison to Singapore. Must be because they’re actually just a much better run country than Malaysia. I could have been born in Singapore for all I know, my mum was working in Singapore but living in Johor Bahru at the time she was pregnant with me. But what do I care, I’m in Australia and loving it. So allow me this one time, to have the Merdeka to propagate the superiority of Malaysian food.
