The hysterically joyful ambience is reaching a feverish crescendo in the media, as if the entire country of Malaysia has erupted into an explosive national celebration that marks our 50th independence anniversary.

For weeks and days on end, the government TV channels and the politically owned dailies have been saturated with images and symbols of fervent nationalism, replete with the usual accolade paid to past leaders, patriotic songs, and an unabashed orgy of self-congratulation on how well we have done as a nation in the last half century, and how citizens ought to be grateful for all this good fortune.

From the publicity blitz in the media alone, one would think that our population of 26 million are all basking in this celebratory mood and exploding in their expression of love for the country for all the liberty, prosperity, and social justice that they enjoy. Relying on our media alone, outsiders may even get the impression that Malaysia is indeed a paradise on earth, and that the people here are the luckiest lot on earth!

Alas, things are never what they appear to be in this country of a thousand contradictions. The national media are tightly controlled and owned directly or indirectly by those very close to the power centre. They have always been instruments of social engineering and thought control, rather than being an unclouded clear mirror that reflect the national soul.

In an ironic twist of justice, the frenzy of Merdeka joy manufactured in the media is largely absent on the proverbial ground.

True enough, the shopping centres and the five star hotels along Jalan Bukit Bintang are awash with the national flags, but that is because of an influx of tourists especially those from the Middle East who are more interested in our government sponsored Merdeka entertainment shows than the locals.

Away from the Golden Triangle in the nation's capital, the national flag is hardly to be seen anywhere in shophouses and public buildings. In the bustling bumper-to-bumper downtown traffic, the odd car flying the national flag stands out like a sore thumb.

Month of the Hungry Ghosts

In my over-crowded neighbourhood on Cheras, the sense of joyful anticipation is completely absent. Nobody has organised any special activity to welcome this supposedly significant event, and Merdeka is hardly a talking point among friends and neighbours as compared to rising crime rates and rising costs of living. Strangely enough, nobody has tried to make the largest cake or the longest flag in the world this year.

I asked my neighbourhood pharmacist why he had not flown the national flag and shown his patriotism as extolled by the government. (He is not Chinese, and such qualification becomes inevitable when discussing Malaysian politics.) He smiled his wry smile and said making ends meet had taken all his energy. In a country where people abstain from commenting on politics openly, what he did not say out loud deafens the ears!

Th Chinese on the other hand, are more preoccupied with appeasing visitors from the nether land in this the Month of the Hungry Ghosts. According to their ancient belief, the 7th month on the Chinese lunar calendar is a period when the gate of hell has been opened, and all the desolate, disparage, wondering ghosts now invade our human world in search of sustenance, solace and compassion. Grand joyful celebrations are generally avoided during this time as part of the general taboos associated with the macabre occasion.

The streetwise Chinese person will opine that perhaps there is more to fear from humans than from ghosts. Only human beings can inflict such kind of extreme cruelty on their fellowmen as humans can. What harm has been done on humankind by ghosts? In any case, in a sprawling metropolis like Kuala Lumpur, where every stranger is a potential threat, it is hard to tell the human beings from the ghosts at times.

Likewise, it is hard to tell the difference between the true patriot and the traitor. Prominent personages who hold impressive political office would like to monopolise the right to brand people as patriot or traitor, naturally.

Unfortunately, many politicians tend to suffer from self-delusion of grandeur. In this case, their self-delusion resides in thinking that they, and only they, embody the entire Malaysian nation-state. Anybody who dares to criticise or ridicule them commits the crime of treason because he also criticises and ridicules the great Malaysian state.

For the Chinese community, the month of Merdeka brings with it the monsoon wind of discontent. The buzz of righteous anger is spreading far and wide over the treatment of a young boy studying in Taiwan and writing a rap song parodying the national anthem. From the deluge of condemnation of ministers and their minions in the media, you would think that this boy is more dangerous than the Communist insurgents of old!

The boy's greatest sin is his iconoclastic use of the national anthem and the national flag as both the theme and the backdrop of his rhapsody. As we all know, the national flag and the national anthem have been elevated by our national grand narrative to the position of unassailable national icons. Iconoclasm of any sort must appear to be heresy in a secular sense.

Strange protean entity

The whole farce is plain comical, as Franz Kafka would have penned it. But it is also tragic at the same time, revealing how after 50 years of independence, our political leaders still lack the self-confidence and the maturity to take the occasional tremor of discontent in their stride.

Unfortunately, the ruling coalition that has determined the fate of the nation for the past half-century is condemned to cling to the past, as an anchor towards their future. Apart from the dispensation of socio-economic goodies in the name of development, the greatest claim to legitimacy of power lies in their nationalistic struggle for independence.

Take away the symbols and icons of nationalism, what do they have left indeed? They must indeed monopolise all nationalistic discourse, or else they falter in their purpose of eternal survival.

But nationalism is a strange protean entity that resists capture, even by the politicians and citizens of a new nation-state like Malaysia. In Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality, Eric Hobsbawm noted in his Introduction:

"First, official ideologies of states and movements are not guides to what it is in the minds of even the most loyal citizens or supporters. Second, and more specifically, we cannot assume that for most people, national identification - when it exists excludes or is always or ever superior to, the remainder of the set of identifications which constitute the social being. Thirdly, national identification and what it is meant to imply, can change and shift in time, even in the course pf quite short periods."

Indeed, the national identification does change and shift in time in Malaysia. Reminding Malaysians the history of the country's struggle for independence 50 years ago ad nausium is fine. Most Malaysians are familiar with the story anyway, since that official history has been written into our school text books. But then again, as Earnest Renan the godfather of historical studies on nationalism said, "Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation."

Again, Hobsbawm is probably right. While the national leaders espouse the grand vision of one single united homogenous Malaysia in another 50 years' time, there are as many Malaysias as there are Malaysians. Certainly, every Malaysian has the right to interpret the living history of his lived daily life from his marginal perspective without his loyalty to the country being called into question.

What kind of independence?

Liberty means more than liberation from foreign domination. It means also liberation from domestic domination, from the clutches of racial, religious, and socio-economic schism, as well as freedom from pandemic corruption at high and low places. Otherwise, independence from British rule can only mean jumping from the frying pan into the fire, and what kind of independence is that?

Ah, my eternally optimistic detractors will point out that 50 years of independence later, we are in a far better position than Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. That sort of comparison will comfort even the untouchables in the slums of Calcutta. Does it mean that we want to be like the untouchables of India? In terms of enjoying a higher standard of living, why can't we compare ourselves with the people of Singapore, even if I find the political climate in Singapore every bit as depressing as in Malaysia, if not more so?

I too can furnish a wish list of how things ought to be like in another 50 years in Malaysia. But if paupers can ride horses, wishes can come true.

So I will take what is given me. The National Day this year falls on a Friday. Many residents of this oppressive Klang valley would welcome a long weekend's reprieve from the drudgery of work. More than a few would be planning a short trip out of town with the family perhaps.

As for me, I will settle down with a good book on that day, and read deep into the night.