Remembering Tunku On Merdeka Day

Believe it or not I had a chance to meet Tunku Abdul Rahman, the founder of Malaysia. It happened because I collect interesting books. One book I kept from my days in University Malaya was THE PROPHET by Khalil Gibran. It's not a religious book. It's an artistic book with poems. There are paintings in the book which are done by the poet.

You see, what happened was the President of Singapore was a good friend of Tunku. On one visit he mentioned to him that he should read this book. So he asked my dad who was his secretary to look for it. Dad went to University Science Malaysia and the Penang Library but could not find it. Over breakfast he just mentioned his exasperation in looking for the book. I told him it was upstairs in my room.

Well, I wrote a message in it for Tunku. After that I had a chance to meet him. His home in Penang was warm and open. Chicken roamed freely.

What did he talk about? He seemed to be broken hearted.. saying that his successor did not understand how hard he worked to build Malaysia. He mentioned specifically that he travelled along many rivers to explain his vision to the people.

I still have a Times Magazine feature on Tunku. I kept it because in it he made a statement which I had quoted when I gave a speech entitled " The Vision Of A Great Man". He said " We have deviated from the true struggle.."

What is the true struggle?

Today in church we sang a song , Sejahterah Malaysia ( Joyous Malaysia ). I have sung this song many times but somehow today it hit me with a new urgency and poignancy. Thank you Almighty for your gift. We are willing to embrace the challenges.

I realized that we were put here as a gift. It could bring us to greater level of liberty. Or we could be pulled backwards to selfish , self-centered destructive conflicts.

There was a profound calling in my spirit. Tears streamed down as I felt the spirit call me. I knew I had to move towards our true struggle. It was not only nation building. It was building the heart and soul of the new generation in Malaysia.

Kami rela kami setia sejahterah Malaysia
We are willing , we are loyal, Joyous Malaysia.

Happy 51st Merdeka.

What is our true true struggle..share your feelings here.