Anak Merdeka, ‘57

Outram Jail, circa 1950s

Kandang Kerbau Hospital, circa 1950s

I was the baby of the family

There were Pa, Ma, Mal, Yat and me

I was born on the eve of Independence

At this maternity hospital called the Oxen Pen

Along with the birth of a new nation

Made up of the FMS and the Straits Settlements

After four and a half centuries of foreign domination

When Ma was heavy with me

Pa was incarcerated into the Penitentiary

Framed for supplying fire arms to the Radical Lefties

That shook the sensibilities of my grandfather, the Selangor Mufti

Who arrived in Singapore in his maroon Mercedes

Driven by his private chauffeur, my third Ami 

Siddi’s presence lent credence to his eldest son’s defence

And swayed the court verdict to a prison sentence    

Ma worked her bones to feed and shelter her family

And buy Pa his pack of Players when she visited him monthly

Her loyalty to her husband was admirable

In spite of her brothers and sisters’ disapproval

They were all the support system that she had

Her mother had died of miscarriage when she was eight

And her father expired when she was a young bride

When I turned six

Pa was released

He moved us from the one-bedroom barrack next to the cinema Central

To his godfather’s two-bedroom house in the village at the Foot Hills

But there was no decent job for a sworn enemy

And he can’t feed his family with fervent pleas

So across the border, and into the interior, he set off with his buddies

To clear acres of land and grow some paddy

When the field of grains turned golden

It was the start of the harvesting season

Pa took us to visit

And witness what all the months of toil had yielded   

Alas, he ran out of funds to pay the villagers

Whom he hired as daily harvesters

When they refused to show up for work

Pa and his buddies could only watch

As tracts and tracts of paddy stalks began to rot

Anak Merdeka - Independence Child

FMS - Federated Malay States

Mufti - Grand Cleric

Ami - Paternal Uncle 

Siddi - Paternal Grandfather

Paddy - Rice Grains

Parlimen Hawaii usul penyatuan Dunia Melayu pada 1879

Kemaskini:

Terjumpa lagi tulisan tentang usaha awal menyatupadukan Dunia Melayu:

http://austronesian.host-ed.net/GenInfo.htm

Kutipan:

"However, not all Austronesians accepted colonial rule--in fact most did not.  Revolts against the Dutch, the Spanish, the Americans, and Portuguese were frequent and intellectual movements dedicated themselves to the single task of rebuilding nationhood by reasserting the culture and the past of the Austronesian forbearers. In the 1860s, King Kalākaua of Hawai'i--an independent kingdom at that time-- founded one of the earliest nationalist newspapers in the Pacific. Ka Hōkū o Ka Pakīkīpa (The Star of the Pacific), which as the name suggest was nationalistic, progressive and Pan-Pacific. In 1879, he authored a bill in the Hawaiian parliament--the first democratically elected national parliament in Austronesia--to formally declare Hawai'i as an Asiatic Malay state and went around the world in 1881 making visits to Japan, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and India. King Kalākaua through discussions with Maharajah Sultan Abubakar bin Tuan Ibrahim of Johor, Malaysia, began to formulate the idea of "Pan-Malay Unity" and discussed the idea of a federation to combat colonialism. The Maharaja was already well known among the Hawaiian royals for gifts such as tiger claw necklaces (which can be seen in official portraits of Queen Emma and Princess Pauahi) and would later give King Kalākaua a copy of the Malay translation of the Quran. 

Queen Emma of Hawai'i wearing the tiger necklace that was a gift from Johor