Malaysia, tanahairku

Have you ever been stuck in traffic at  6 pm , on a rainy friday evening ? If you havent , you clearly don’t live anywhere near KL town.What usually takes 20 minutes to home , is going to delay you an hour and a half if you re lucky.A two lane road has become a 4 lane, and there s no way even motorcyclists get to squeeze through .(Yes , we re selfish like that!)And everybody inches thru traffic at 15km/ hour , some cursing at the errant motorcyclists , the others “illegally” answering whatsapps, and me ,just wishing I had a helicopter.

THEN , there s the wail of an ambulance from afar. All of a sudden, there s  a lane that miraculously opens up , almost feels like Moses and the parting of sea moment.Four wheel drives climb over  pavements, tiny cars suddenly slip into  tiny nooks available , and the traffic that seemed impossible suddenly allows this ambulance to whizz thru at 150km/hour.

Whenever I hear that ambulance wail, my heart always sinks, that feeling that a daughter is waiting helplessly at home , with her ill father  and waiting for help. What probably feels like hours to her , just holding her father , not knowing what to do. And I am sure, each one of us in our  vehicle, that has moved , irrespective of age , color or hierarchy doing all we can to  let the paramedics reach that man , needing aid , has also muttered a prayer that he receives treatment in time to save his life. My tears always well up when this episode unfolds ( my husband is probably rolling his eyes, coz he thinks I cry for everything but seriously didn’t you cry at the end of Ola Bola ,too????).

Despite the troubles we face , the rakyat DOES always come together when it needs to .(yeah yeah, also when Datuk Lee Choong Wei plays Lin Dan) But this one is a shout out to the paramedics who are our true unsung heroes . That never treat based on race or religion , but always humanity.Thats the Malaysia we know.

Happy Birthday Malaysia. Aku cinta padamu.Sungguh.