I Love You Except...

I was having this conversation with a friend of mine who was busy tearing into how shitty Barisan Nasional is (and you know this line of thought has become so easy to pick up that intellectuals should start supporting Barisan for the sheer mental rigor trying to come up with positive things to say...) and as usual include the following caveat "You know I'm doing all this because I love this country...".

I've been listening to this a lot these days. A lot of people are using the line "I love this country..." and the proceed to diss everything and anything you can think of. The traffic, the Government, the Malays, the Government, the Chinese, the Government, the Mamaks, the Government, the economy, the Government, the cost of living, the Government...and so forth. I hear people complaining about how hot Malaysia is, how wet it is, how smelly the city is, how stupid the people are, how lazy we are, how crazy our drivers are, how dirty our restaurants are...well, you catch my drift.

Of course, then these very same people would add, "Oh I love this country". But do they? Really?

It's a lot like you are in a relationship with a girl. Only in this case, you don't get to choose (like an arranged marriage!). You say you're in love with her, but you find her face ugly, you think she's stupid, you hate her attitude, and you can't stand the sound of her voice. So what do you actually love about her? Then once in a blue moon, like during your anniversary, you say nice things about her, and claim to everyone you love her, but for the rest of the year you can't think of how better it'd be if she was someone else.

I've met so many people who can't stop talking about how great the UK is, the US is, how nice it is to stay in Australia, how great it is to be Singaporean. It's like being married to Siti Nurhaliza but can't stop talking about Jennifer Lopez. Then you start finding fault with Siti, like how weird the contraption she's wearing on her head, or how contrived her dancing is. In your mind you wish Siti would turn into JLo. So are you really in love with Siti, or are you actually more interested for Siti to become Jlo?

All I'm saying is, sometimes we just say "because we love this country..." but we really don't. I am not saying we shouldn't criticize what's wrong with the nation, but sometimes I get a feeling people have been criticizing for far too long that all we could say we like about this country is "the food". You can't say you love your wife if the only part of her you love is her nose (and you kinda hate everything else).

As we come to celebrate Merdeka, let us try to take a breather and recall what we love about this nation. Heck, if we have to "recall", then something's not right in the first place. Me? I like that a lot of Malaysians seem to kinda hate being in Malaysia. Now THAT is uniquely Malaysian:)

Just like Public Bank...

Hey, other than the cool remix of Waving Flags (oooo...welcome Tan Sri Teh..."), I don't see what's so odd about this celebration. I'm just curious to know if the great Tan Sri can hire me as his event coordinator because obviously he really like his ladies...lol