DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY (OR, WEST MALAYSIA FORGETS EAST MALAYSIA'S BIRTHDAYS)
I feel like a stepchild growing up in the East.
And you're the stepdad that's never home.
Unless it's to plunder our oil.
Or to shred our forests into paper for the history textbook that you make us pay an extra 4 ringgit for because we're in the East.
A textbook that tells us that we have a National Independence Day.
Independence Day:
Did you forget that we have our own?
We light candles and sing our heart out for your birthday,
And (surprise) you're never home for ours.
We had to claim that as our own special day.
It took us 53 years to do that.
Us, not you, you forgot it was even on the calendar.
When we hold our anniversary on 16th September, you join out of pity.
You’re reluctant to hold another reunion because you’ve already had one with the paternal side.
The fireworks are pathetic because you blew all of it in August.
And you wonder why some of us are asking mom to get a divorce.
I don't want that of course; I still feel like we're a family.
But it's hard when you've never tried.
Explanatory notes:
We often think of Independence Days as birthdays. But what happens when a family only celebrates one spouse’s birthday and forgets the other?
Hari Kebangsaan (Malay for National Day) is typically celebrated on 31st August when Malaya (now known as West Malaysia) achieved independence in 1957. However, the celebration has sparked recent controversy as it ignores the fact that the actual formation of Malaysia - a union of Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah, and Malaya - took place on 16 September 1963 (this would be the actual ‘birthday’ of Malaysia).
Through a Sarawakian perspective, the poem critiques the hegemonic Malayan discourse of Malaysian history which subsumes Sarawak’s history under the Malayan independence narrative.
In 2016, Sarawak officially recognised 22 July as Sarawak Independence Day where it is now a public holiday.
David Tay Ang Shun is a Sarawakian studying in Singapore. His writing and photography seek to capture the emotions felt in the unconscious everyday. Find him on Twitter and Instagram (@oidavidah). His works can be found in Omelette Mag and Briefly Zine.