J-Ye the Minimaos: 1Malaysia - my own story behind

Okay.. so every Malaysian know the theme for our independence day this year is 1Malaysia. 1Malaysia, 1bangsa, sehati sejiwa. And the 1Malaysia song is not bad too. So what exactly does this 1Malaysia means? I'm sure everyone has their different answers to this question, but somehow, they all links. To me, it means that no matter what races we are all from, we all stand and unite as 1. Because we are all Malaysians. And i'm honestly proud to be one. We have all the benefits being a Malaysian. We get to know people from many different races, and yet we can all speak the same language and be able to understand each other. Not only that, we get to understand their cultures, eat their food, and perhaps even speak their language. Here we have government school; which consists children from all races, Chinese schools, and Tamil schools. And in this modern era, Chinese and Tamil schools no longer consist of just purely Chinese and Indian students. Now, they have Malays and Indians studying in Chinese schools, and Chinese and Malays studying in Tamil schools. I can tell you that now even some Malays and Indians speak better Mandarin than i do.

I personally, was in a government school since Standard 1. A girl school to be more specific. (BBGS rules!~) Since young, i have friends from all races. I had a chance to experience their cultures and their way of living; up close and personal. 2 of my many bestfriends when i was in primary school are Indians. I still remember how i used to overnight at their houses, pray together with them (yeapz, i even went to their temples too), eat their mom's cooking, bath together-gether with them. (Ok, that was a little bit too detail), i even learnt Indian dance together with them too! But i ended up half bucket water only lar~ But as time goes by, as i grow up, things change, and people come and go. So do friends. As i entered Secondary school, my group of friends are not the same anymore. By then, my bestfriends and my gang, are majority Malays. Somehow, i feel more comfortable around them. With them, i learnt their cultures too. When they puasa, i sometimes puasa together with them, during Hari Raya, i visited their house and join in the celebration. Of course, we need also respect their culture. That's why, it gives me another reason to go shopping - for baju kurungs. Thus, because of this, i now speak fluent Malay. Everytime i speak to a random Malay they'll surely say "Wow, melayu you bagus lar. Langsung tak ada slang Cina."

You know how some people can turn out to be rather racism, and i'm lucky to have a group of friends who accepted me for who i am, regardless the differences in my race and cultures. To them, i am an OCBC (Orang Cina Bukan Cina). Believe it or not, one of them, Suzanna, a very close friend to me since we were in Standard 1, and now, we are bestfriends. It's very hard to find a friend whom you basically has known each other for 16 years, even more harder if we are both from different races. Now that we are all grown up, some working and some are still studying, we still try our best to come out for a drink once in a while. Buka puasa gatherings are one of our must-attend gatherings. And everytime we're out in a group, people tend to look at me in a weird way, because i'm the only Chinese. Hello!~ Chinese Indian or Malay, we are all Malaysians, and that's nothing weird about it. That is why, our prime minister came out with this 1Malaysia theme. 1Malaysia, 1bangsa, sehati sejiwa! Get it??

My 2 bestfriends - Suzanna and Azalia

This is my gang of monkies since Secondary school. From left: Azalia, Suzanna, Hamzi, Shiela, Lynda, Jannah, Kak Pah, and Zila.

This is taken during our recent buka puasa gathering

I also call her 'mamalia' - short form of Mama Azalia. Hehee!~ She's also our secret weapon everytime our class kena spot check. We hid our handphones underneath her tudung. SShhh!!