Merdeka

Today is the day to celebrate our country's independence.

Frankly speaking, it isn't a particularly exciting day for me. The reason I say this is that achieving independence wasn't anything hard for us. We didn't have to fight for it through blood and fire, as many other countries did. At the time we became independent, Britain was already in the process of disengaging from all her colonies, so we would definitely have got our freedom whether delegations were sent or not.

If we had never been ruled by Britain, I think we would have been worse off. First off, there probably wouldn't be a Malaysia, but instead Kedah, Melaka, Johor, etc would all be individual nations. Secondly, the British did guide the development of rubber plantations, mines and other sources of income for Malaysia. Thirdly, they left us a good set of laws and a democratic political system. So when Mahathir was railing against the West, I have no idea what he was making all the fuss about.

What we should remember is that the British have left us to mold our own destiny, and we should do it well. Malaysia has done better than many other young countries, but clearly, it could do better. In the spirit of Merdeka, I would like to ask that my tax money not be spent on ridiculous things like tall buildings anymore. Please do something useful like promoting tourism better or installing more solar panels.