This was posted over at motoring-malaysia.blogspot.com. I have deciced to post it over here too!
Happy Merdeka Day. That's Happy
Independence Day to those that do not understand Malay. Malaysia
celebrates fifty seven years of independence today, well, with the
small note that Sabah and Sarawak joined us a few years later in
1963. Anyway, the ride from 1957 to 2014 has been exciting hasn't it?
In the nineteen fifties, a period right
after the great world war, was an era where rebuilding was happening
throughout the world. It also was an era where change was at hand for
those in Malaya (and to some extent Sabah & Sarawak). The British
were more focused on rebuilding their homeland rather than grasp on
their empire. The British then had plans to unite the administration
of Malaya under a single crown colony called the Malayan Union but
that plan was met with strong opposition from the Malays, who opposed
the weakening of the Malay rulers and the granting of citizenship to
the ethnic Chinese (and others). After all, whether most like it or
not, the Malays ruled Malaya in one form or another since the 1400s,
when the Empire of Malacca happened, followed by theJohor Empire, the
Sultanates of most of the states in Malaya and so forth. Of course
there were some states taken over by the Portugese, Dutch and then
the British.
The Malayan Union, established in 1946
and consisting of all the British possessions in the Malay Peninsula
with the exception of Singapore, was quickly dissolved and replaced
by the Federation of Malaya due to unwavering protests of the Malays
in general. Malaya gained independence in 1957 and after this a plan
was put in place to federate Malaya with the crown colonies of North
Borneo (which joined as Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore. The proposed
date of federation was delayed until 16 September 1963. Oh, Singapore
gained their own independence in 1965. I suppose that is a short
version of how things happened, without any further description of
blood, violence and table top negotations that happened along the
way.
So we have been independent for a
while. We've progressed in leaps and bounds, stalled and restarted as
well as trundled along on autopilot as a nation. As for us
petrolheads, gearheads, motorheads or plain car enthusiasts, we have
seen through decades of change in the motoring scene. And in the
1950s, with things on track in most parts of the world, Malaya too
was developing. We had a lot of Malayans buying their first car
during this period.
During this period, I remember my
maternal grandfather telling me that he bought his first car. It was
a second hand British car which I could not remember the make. This
was a chap who used to travel on a motorcycle or a scooter and now he
could travel in relative safety especially on his commutes from
Taiping to Ipoh. He was a government clerk then and bought the car
with whatever he saved. In those days, it took people about two hours
to get from Taiping to Ipoh. It took over five hours from Ipoh to
Kuala Lumpur (if there were no lorries) And you could only travel
during the day, with your eyes alert as the communists could and
would suddenly ambush you. You had curfew that went on till the early
1970s in some of these parts which limited travel at night.
In the 1960s, there wasn't much change
from the 1950s. Progress was still slow as I suppose we were too busy
dealing with independence rather than actual progress. But the
motoring scene was pretty good in those days. I remember my
grandfather telling me that he was running an MG Magnette by then (he
bought that used too) and also remember my dad telling me that the
racing scene in Johor Bahru and Penang was quite happening. He
remembers attending street races, properly organised ones that had
Austin, MG, Jaguar and other mostly British makes racing one another.
He even remembered an acquaintance of him actually getting killed
whilst piloting his Jaguar E-type into the Tebrau Straits during a
race. I don't know how true the story was but I am aware that these
accidents happen in an era where seatbelts and to an extent helmets
were optional items.
Anyway, the cars of the 1950s and 1960s
were miles better than what they had prior to this. The cars first
started having synchromesh gears on them which did not require the
dreaded double de-clutching move. They also had a unibody
construction or monocoque style instead of a separate chassis. They
also had bodies that had flared over wheel arches instead of just
coverings like an extra large bicycle. There were lots of
improvements for car enthusiasts to appreciate. And so they did.
So back then, it was a simpler time.
Money was tight and most who could buy cars were the slightly
affluent. Travel time was also long but those that could still had
fun. And I suppose things stayed the same till the mid 1980s, when
the first stretches of the north-south highway was opened. Those that
were old enough would remember that a trip from IPenang to Kuala
Lumpur took over 9 hours and sometimes required an overnight stop as
there was only a single lane on each side. Being stuck behind a few
lorries meant a heck of a delay especially when going uphill (and
there were many uphill sections on the old roads). There were no such
things as overtaking lanes (which basically started sometime in the
1990s at the earliest). In fact, if you were travelling from Penang
to Singapore, you would have had to spend a night somewhere in Kuala
Lumpur or Seremban before continuing your journey down south.
These days, the highway system allows
travel to be relatively smooth and on normal days, Ipoh to Kuala
Lumpur takes only an hour and a half, Kuala Lumpur to Penang about
three hours or so and Singapore about the same time. We have highways
crisscrossing the Titiwangsa mountain range and we have better roads
in Sabah and Sarawak too. So there has been some progress.
We had maybe a million or so people to
twenty nine million or so people today. Due to this, a trip from
Kuala Lumpur to Penang may take as long as it was during the 1970s
and 1980s prior to the highway being built. That is the price of
having more road users.
This price of progress means that a
whole lot of us could afford the comfort of their own car. Yes, we
have one of the highest car prices in the world but in 2013 we had
over 500,000 vehicle registrations. One of the largest markets in
South East Asia. We also started our own national car with Proton in
the 1980s and is the only South East Asian country that has the
capability to build a car from scratch. And yes, from an overall
point of view we are still not very good at car making but we're
getting better (hopefully before people get fed up of it). But let's
look at the fabulous stuff we have. We are fabulous at food. We have
a fantastic, rich and diverse heritage of various races and cultures.
We have fabulous holiday destinations. We have fabulous rainforests
and mountains. We have great (to an extent) roads for enthusiasts to
drive on. We have a heck of a lot of good stuff going on here.
But the point I am trying to make is
this. If some small tropical country like Malaysia can progress the
way we have, with quite a few large achievements under our belt, we
should all treasure our freedom and independence. We should all
strive for personal gain but not at the expense of ruining our
country. So what we should not do is let those that will harm our
peace and harmony destroy everything we have. Those that will do harm
are the politicians. Do not listen to most of them. They are there to
politicking every little thing out there. Especially racial
disharmony even though they are telling us that they are promoting
unity.
Any racial disharmony is mostly caused
by them - For example, by each of them promoting vernacular schools
and also keeping government 'Sekolah Kebangsaan' type schools with
the rich sending their kids to private school does not allow racial
integration at all. I used to go to St John's Institution in KL, did
my form 5 in 1989. There we mingled with the rich and poor, royalty,
all the races and we had a diverse set of teachers all of whom spoke
English which even the normal Malay boy from Kampung Baru could
understand those days. So one school stream to teach them all is the
best – and seconded by a lot of my schoolmates who were of Chinese,
Malay and Indian of ethnicity.
So what needs to be done by us normal
Malaysians? Just continue with your lives. Just remember that the
person next to you is also trying to egg out a living. He may be
poorer, he may be richer but he is a Malaysian. You may need his help
one day. You may not. Your cake may be small compared to his but you
should remember that he may have gotten his larger cake by working
hard. What most Malaysians do not have nowadays is patience. This is
your downfall. You listen to all the hype the politicians are saying
more than you are willing to pick up a cangkul, a pen or even a book
to do what you are supposed to do.
If you are a farmer, farm. If you are a
writer, write. If you are a student, study. In due time and with some
perseverance you too will succeed. Look, I didn't get to where I am
by complaining a whole lot and doing nothing. I did my share of shit.
I did my share of nonsense. I drove a hand me down 1981 Honda Civic
when I started college in 1992 and continued driving it when I first
started work in 1997. Drove it for another year before I got a Proton
Wira. Drove that for a good seven years before I bought another car
and then another seven before I got another. Being prudent and
patient pays off. And your time will come. So don't jeopardize
everything including your soul and your ideals because you want it
all now.
Malaysia wasn't built in a day. You
should take your time too.
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