I was in London in winter of 2002. The atmosphere was gloomy as usual for London. Bells of Christmas are starting to ring here and there. The environment was filled with red and white as Santa Claus was approaching yet for another Christmas celebration. Shopping malls in town offered variety of 'mega sales' for the Boxing Day, just like what we have here for our own version of Mega Sale. I remember when I walked down the Oxford Street, I couldn't help noticing that many people looked alike but they didn't necessarily speak the same language. Of course they came in various sizes - some were tall and some were short. And the language mostly from what I could tell, they probably came from Western or Eastern Europe.

I began to see its similarity here in Malaysia. Well to be exact it's happening in Kuala Lumpur for the last 10 years of economic boom. Politically speaking, our economic was booming before the 1998 financial crisis and we were then called the Asian Tiger economy (now we should call ourselves a Pussy Economy, thanks to Pak Lah). But anyway, that's not the point here. The point here is that there are many people who look like us but they don't speak like us. They are Indonesian people who are actively crossing our sovereign borders every day.

These people come here for jobs which Malaysians reject because of many reasons. They come here and create their village, much like us when we go oversea. It is very natural for people to be with community which they can identify themselves with.

They look very much like except they have their own language. Last night I shared a conversation with 'my friend' about the differences of language - Sunda, Boyan, Jawa and Banjar. I never know that they are actually almost not identical. Even if they are alike, the grammar and pronunciation could be different.

Pak Ungku said in a forum about national unity that a united country is when its citizens can communicate and interact perfectly with each other through a common language. We have Bahasa Melayu (it started to sound very communal to me now) but we don't have Bahasa Malaysia. It is used to be called with that name. But somehow some smart ass in Parliament asked it to be changed to Bahasa Melayu. Okay, whatever.

The point I am trying to make here - Can we be united citizen, using the common language to bridge our segmented and self imposed segregation to achieve common goals for this country?

To be frank (not that I always lie in my blog), I don't know. Language is quite a sensitive issue for Malays. In fact, I don't know any ethnic which is very much sensitive almost to everything other than my own ethnic. We are sensitive about our language, our customs, our religion, our food, our politics, our sodomy, our yacht, our Mongolian chics and etc. Because we are sooooo sensitive about our own, we have become insensitive towards other ethnic's sensitivity. Hmm, bila belanga mengata bontot periuk hitam.

Anyway, whatever it is, I will still try my best to speak in my Kelantanese dialect with I go back to Kuala Krai. Hehehhe..that's what I call a Kelantanese Unity!