Today, Malaysia celebrates its 48th birthday after 4 centuries of being ruled over by foreign powers who thought they knew what was best for us and still do.

The progress we have achieved in terms of infrastructure, government, education, health standards and economy speaks for itself. Notice that I mentioned progress which means there is still a long way to go but that's besides the point. Sometimes, I really wonder if we have come to point where being first in everything is everything. We look and marvel at the achievements of other countries and then turn back with a magnifying glass on our homeland only to find out that we're so far behind and there are pot holes everywhere in everything so we start tsk tsk here and tsk tsk there. What we have really done is forgotten how far we have come as a country and instead of comparing ourselves with others, we should really give each other a pat on the back and a word or two of encouragement.

As youngsters, we are so overawed by foreign music, fashion, lifestyle and habits that we fail to appreciate our own. "Old-fashioned", "outdated" and "not coooool" are adjectives so feared by young Malaysians and in striving to be the opposite of these and to remain in the cool crowd, we prefer what everyone else prefers. This I've noticed especially when Negaraku comes on, everyone looks around to make sure that everyone else is singing so that we're not the only ones. Most of the time, our national anthem consists of half-spirited mumbles and parts of lyrics disappearing here and there. Maybe that's the real reason Negaraku sounds so bad! The song really doesn't need a faster tempo or a livelier beat but it desperately craves our full attention, respect, pride and courage to sing it out as it really is; grand and uncompromising.

Our forefathers did not fight and toil with blood and sweat for a Merdeka of half-hearted appreciation and lukewarm interest in Malaysia but they did sacrifice themselves for a Merdeka that liberates us to fully embrace our culture, that liberates us to be Malaysians.