Give Us Your Finger Contest! - My Malaysian Moment | @branlee87's Entry

Hey, all!

It's been forever since I last wrote a blog post. If you follow me, you'll know that I almost exclusively do podcasts on @dsound these days.

So the reason why I'm back in the blogging world(for ONE day only!)doing this blog post is to support a great contest initiated by @kchitrah - who writes some epic posts about Yoga and personal development. Check her stuff out!

The contest from my understanding is a way to express and share the joy and well wishes for our country's future(Malaysia). And well.....also to hopefully win a WHOPPING 3SBD!

In any case, it's been awhile since I really put my thoughts on paper(digital paper) so please go easy on me.

Here it goes!

My Malaysian Moment

Where do I begin?

Let me start with my honest thoughts. I know no other way.

I was never a student of our country's history. I consider myself ignorant when it comes to that subject. I just couldn't care. Why or how should any of this matter to me? It certainly doesn't affect me. Or so i thought.

Enter 2013, Malaysia's 13th general election.

From ignorant Malaysian history flunk out, to one of the many Malaysians standing in line, voting(first time) to get their voices heard. Demanding change.

I won't go into detail but that's just how bad the state of Malaysia had become for those who never cared to start caring. And to have change we had to really take the initiative and fight for it. Because the harsh reality was that even with our combined and cumulative efforts, this was still an uphill battle.

As luck would have it, we lost the elections. An election that we were so sure we were going to win. In the end, all we got was disappointment and heartache. In retrospect however, what I failed to realize back in 2013 was the huge dent we the people, managed to put in their armour. And top of that, we as Malaysians were truly beginning to come together as a country.

Flash forward to the 9th of May, 2018.

Although we had to endure another 5 years of such a slow and terrible burn, we came back stronger than ever. With bigger numbers. And we had finally won. A "Malaysian Tsunami" some are calling it.

I was always ashamed of my country. Maybe it's because I always felt like an outsider. Maybe it's because of the overall sentiment in my household. And it certainly didn't help that the last 10 years were bleak and hopeless.

Friends were talking about migration. Heck, some of them already left the country with no intention of ever returning.

But despite being massively deflated by the outcome of the GE13, we never gave up hope. The leaders championing our cause never gave up hope. When all band together for a just and noble cause, it can happen. The fires of the hunger for change were too overwhelming to put out.

I guess what I'm saying is that throughout this whole experience and the hardships shared by my fellow countrymen, I have never felt more Malaysian. It's hard to describe but I feel like I got to live my Malaysia moment. I got to be a part of something important in my country. It made me realize that when it came down to it, this is my home and I AM Malaysian. And there are millions of us who feel exactly the same way. Even as a write these words down I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and nationalism I've never ever felt before. These are not stories out of a dead history text book forced upon school students to memorize. This whole experience IS you and me. It's all of us. We ARE part of our country's history.

If you guys know me, you know I'm not one for being poetic or cheezy but I will end this post with this.

In 2013, we put all eggs in one basket and we lost. I still remember everyone being semi depressed. All hope was lost. No joke. No exaggeration. It literally felt like we had failed to prevent our country from falling into impending doom. They laughed at us, taunted us, spent more of our hard earned money, harassed our leaders and even jailed them unlawfully. But we held on to hope. 9th of May, 2018 is proof that we're actually strong as a nation and as a people even if we're just finding that out now.

So my picture is my left index finger pointing towards the sun in the sky. This finger covered in ink. Such a simple thing but yet so collectively powerful. This finger that contributed to the change that we now see upon us. Probably my finest and proudest moment as a Malaysian now documented and lives on in the Steemit blockchain hopefully for decades to come. The Sun and sky are hope for tomorrow. For the future. For whatever happens today and in life, good or bad, tomorrow always comes. And with it, Hope. So keep fighting the good fight, everyone! We've finally gotten rid of the source of the problems but we've still got a long way to go. Mistakes will happen and there will be hardships yet to come but as long as we never forget what we have been fighting for for almost a decade we will be fine. To a better and brighter Malaysia that everyone can be proud of just to even be associated with. I know I am proud of all of us and truly proud to be Malaysian :)

And with that, I would like to share this song, Last Hope by Paramore. Weirdly enough, it's been out for years now and I never got into it until a month and a half ago before the elections. For some reason, it just started speaking to me and maybe it will speak to you.

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It's just a spark but it's enough to keep me going
And when it's dark out and no one's around it keeps glowing