What do you think Malaysians do on the morning of the 50th Independence Day, when they couldn't go to all the hype and happening gatherings at Dataran Merdeka (with all the heat strokes, shoulder-to-shoulder contacts and sweaty armpits) other than watching it on t.v.?

They play BADMINTON, Malaysia's national sport!

I'm not being Un-Patriotic, but hey, at least this is healthier compared to having to endure the hot sun at 10 am and smelling un-favourable odours at Dataran Merdeka.

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I was looking out of the window this morning, looking at the blue sky (nice weather today!) when the thought came, how do the newly-declared citizens of Malaya felt 50 years ago on this very day, what do they expect the next 50 years would carry.

Are we to feel the same way too today like them, what would the next 50 years of Malaysia bring? Confrontations? More hoohahs on NEP and the racial (and religion) biasness? Will there be any change to the education and social system? Or will there be a new age colonialization by outer forces of evil? Will Malaysia still be the melting pot of various races, and not the emphasis of a particular race?

I wonder what would Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Sabanathan and Tan Cheng Lock say, seing the state of Malaysia today.

Would they be proud of the fast-tracked development and the boasted achievements we held high?

Or would they shake their heads, seing the social contract they worked so hard to create, being stepped on and ignored by the children of Today?

Let's not forget how Malaya first come to reach her independence, how the liberal Tunku and his NATION-MATES forged the word Merdeka on the 31st of August, 50 years ago.

How Malaya endured the tumultous communist era, the confrontations, how Malaysia was formed through all this, the black May 13 we went through (with the flying kerises), the sudden development charges and opening of new townships and cities, the survivability through the 97's financial crises, and finally how everything combined to come to this day.

I won't ignore that the racial cards were played throughout these 50 years, but it wasn't the emphasis on races that were the X factor to how we survived, but it was how we break through that race-label barrier and maintain a steady 'give and take' system.

I still hear stories of how a rare group of Malays during the May 13 shelter their Chinese friends from being burned by their own people, and in another part of the country, some Chinese kind-heartedly provide basic necessities to impoverished Malay families affected by the accident.

Why can't we learn from this today? Why still maintain the column 'Bangsa' in our official forms when all of us anyways, are Bangsa : Malaysia?

Why not stop saying, oh, I'm a Melanau, Malay, Chinese, Indian when we can simply say, I'm a Malaysian? Aren't we created by the same God, and equally for that matter?

So... HAPPY 50th Merdeka, people of Malaysia!

It's a pleasure to live on this land and with you people out there from the day I was born.