Serumpun lalang!

Before the era of globalization and the seamless, borderless world of the 21st century reared its ugly head, as far as Malaysia and Indonesia were concerned, there were, and there are, no borders between these two countries. In the pre-Independence years, people's movement between nations had no boundaries. Some people had 2 lives and 2 families. This was instrumental in many Malay screen and music legends like Maria Menado, Aziz Sataar, Asiah and even P.Ramlee's father! Fast forward to the future, you still see many Indonesians in Malaysia with 2 lives, 2 families and many passports (just in case one is blacklisted). Even our earlier race-based Malayan politicians (and present ones) had plans up their sleeves to naturalize Indonesians to the Malayan Malay headcount to show dominance!

When the Cobbold Commission went on their mission to carve off a slice of the Malay archipelago to form a new country, General Sukarno and his countrymen went up in arms. They believe that the Malaya-Indonesia entity should be one as Nusantara. It went on for 3 years until Sukarno's ouster.

The Malaysians, on the other hand, have a soft spot for their neighbour. Maybe, because without them, the many mega-buildings around towns would not have materialized, and their children would not be attended to. So many times, amnesty had been given to their illegal intruders. It even paid for their trip, only for them to return with another spanking new passport, courtesy of the Indonesian Government and their inefficiencies. When either team play in either country (Malaysia or Indonesia), they (Indonesia) land in full force to haunt the Malaysians. This is obvious even when Malaysia plays Indonesia in Thomas Cup in KL. The visitors are louder than the host. In Jakarta, recently, during the football finals, our victorious team had not only to survive food poisoning and substandard accommodation, but they also had to survive a hostile barrage of heckling and intimidation.

Now, are we still serumpun (of the same stock), engaging in sibling rivalry, are different because of changing times, or do we choose to sway like a clump of weeds (serumpun lalang) to the direction of the wind when it suits us?