51st Merdeka

Well, this is quite a milestone for me, considering that 31st August is now re-established as my public holiday..haha. I purposely wake up earlier today to watch the Perarakan Merdeka because its like eight years since I watched it! For the previous 8 years, 31st August is a school day for me, actually, half school day because 1st September is Teacher's Day at the country down south. But still, I would miss the morning Perarakan because need to report to school. It certainly brings back memories when I was a child and where my grandma would excitingly point the screen and ask me to find my uncle (who's with the Malaysian air force) in the marching soldier contingent..haha. Hearing some old patriotic songs over the TV gives me a sense of nostalgia. Sudirman's "Tanggal 31" is just classic :)

There's a general feeling among Malaysians though that there's no festive mood for the 51st celebration. It's been overshadowed by so many things - Euro 2008, Olympics, rising oil prices, Saifuls, Permatang Pauh, and Crossovers. Even Pak Lah and Najib don't look to be in a celebratory mood and they looked to be darn bored in the parade.

My favourite part for the perarakan has always being the march-past where I get to see the beautiful costumes of the participants, decorated trailers and those public display of heavy armaments. The march past in Malaysia is more of a massive scale as compared to the south. You get even private sectors and representatives from banks marching in..haha. Btw, the Yang-di Pertuan Agong looks quite fierce and intimidating with his military garb, especially when he's younger than the two ministers siting beside him. I thought he would wear the traditional garb like the previous Agongs though.

Hmmm..one thing I've noticed is that there's easily 10 to 20 marching brass bands participating in the march past. What fascinates me is that, how did they co-ordinate the music and timing with each other? And also, every public civil sector from the fireman/bomba to the police and the three divisions of the armed forces all have their own brass bands! Woah, are they part of the staff who play music in their past times or are they recruited just to play music? Interesting observation..haha. Ohhh..and one more thing, I'm surprised that the Malaysian Air-force actually owns F-18 Hornet fighter jets. I've always thought they'll only use Soviet equipments in the form of MiG fighters. Anyways, they were displaying the squadron flyover as the air force troops and airborne rangers march on the ground. The Malaysian air-force doesn't have F-16s like the southern country though..haha, since Malaysia is using the MiG 29 instead.

Oh well, I'm going back to uni tonite. Hopefully I won't encounter another snoring king beside me again on the bus..haha =p