so the trip to penang didnt turn out as expected. it was random...and maybe lost too. but i kinda liked it......because surprises are usually nice. but when they are not, i guess there's nothing much we can do. penang has something that sp-ians have lost......heritage. i know im going to sound like a typical singaporean for comparing their small little island with their neighbour. but its true. not only penang has more developed facilities, but some of their heritage survive such progress.
most of their old buildings are properly maintained, i like the ferry....its like somesort of symbol, those old schools, the swing doors i saw in one of those shops on the way to gurney, the toyshops..though it's still not good enough, the old cars....wait, sp's better, we got a maserati. here is the difference, whatever heritage and old stuff penang has, they cherish it, and most of them are in good condition........but here.....well, the maserati says it all doesnt it. its practically abandoned, beyond repair, and nobody notices. even my dad thought it was a toyota and refuse to stop by the shop till i bet with him. people here just dont care.
they have proper trees by the road side, giving the road nice shades........sp-ians just chopped them off. they have a very cool war museum.....we have only the base of what used to be candi in lembah bujang. their schools still have their identities......ours are just lost in translation. we used to have a real, proper motto "finis coronat opus". but now, some genius came up with "ibrahim number 1" which is, if i may....cocky and arrogant. that has replaced "finis coronat opus" as the school motto. ask any form 1 ibrahim kid our motto, it'd be "ibrahim number 1". that number one motto can only be applied when we actually win. what if we lose? look down and leave quietly? with finis coronat opus, we can just shout that at anytime.......cos other people wont understand.....and it's still true in any given situation. we have dewan syed jan, which is said to be haunted.....though its like a huge oven, i'd hate to see it being demolished once we can use the new hall. from mr hoh and mr fletcher's description, i can imagine that the school was really prestigious when they were students here. they said that there was this tree beside the road, and when the leaves fall, and cover the road, it looked beautiful. i really wish to see that. even our school museum is locked and hard to notice. we dont even treasure our school history, so why are we expected to give a damn about how tanah melayu was formed and bla bla bla. our history dated back since 1919, so it should be as old as A&W....yay! but look as us now, everything has change since 1919.....EVERYTHING. and the worse, it wont stop. i dont know what ibrahim will look like when i visit the school 10 years later....if i actually visit it. i doubt i can recognise the place anymore.
though its a different story for penang, with the govt cutting their budget on this opposition state, and those new and multilingual signboards.....i doubt they can hold on to their heritage any longer. for peace sake, why the hell must there be an issue on signboards? its been there for years, and i dont see anybody got lost and starved to death. if anyone got lost in penang, even if a blind got lost in penang, all he had to do is walk straight till he reach the beach, and walk along it till he reach the bridge...then get a bus or smtg. people are already used to this old signboards. most of them are in english....so what? if bahasa kebangsaan is an issue, i dont see the wanita umno issue being discussed in bm completely. come on, rafidah is fine talking in english to the press, i dont see that being discussed by politicians. next, their are going to change butterworth's name to bm. just leave it be. why bother on such small issue? are these signboard going to help us going through the economy crisis?
one of these days, im going to penang again, and im going to take every single photo of everything that passes by my camera lense. who knows? im not gonna let any other heritage fall to the pit of oblivion. after all, i was born in penang.
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