The Silent Room

One of the most unbelieveable shits I’ve ever heard on the news for the past few weeks was the one I heard on radio earlier this evening. They announced something about the government claiming that youngsters no longer respect the ‘Negaraku’ and want to have the song played on local cinemas before the screening of each movie! It’s enough that the Gundam SEED Destiny episode I watched last night left me with some wtf-ness, but hearing this, damn. I am simply oveewhelmed with OMFGWTFLMFAO-ness. No, seriously, I was laughing so hard behind the wheel, I didn’t realise I was going so slow.

Back to the main story, this reminded me of 31st August last year. Some smart guy wanted to close the toll gates across the nation for 10 minutes [2355-0005 hrs] and have drivers step out of their cars, and sing Negaraku. Alright, let me spell this out for you [since, asking you to read my lips doesn't exactly apply, here] WHAT THE FUCK? I mean, instead of making proposals for this stupid campaign for people to respect the anthem, why not squeeze out some of that brain juice to reduce the workloads of school teachers? Or something that can convince drivers to actually stop at a fucknig zebra crossing? Or a more convincing anti-smoking campaign. There are plenty of other issue that leaves the wtf-ness lingering in my mind, but the national anthem is definitely not one of them.

If it’s about respect for the anthem you’re worried about, it’s not that youngsters don’t respect it anymore. They never even have respected it in the first place. Hell, even I myself don’t have a reason to respect it. Maybe that’s because I didn’t spill any blood for this country, or fights against big political and economical issues for it. Seriously, forcing people to listen to a song repeatedly isn’t going to instill any respect.

Now, a lot of people I know love and respect their school anthem. Why is that? Simple, they contributed to the school, and that the school recognized their efforts. It comes from a direct relationship between an entity that is the school, and the students that attended it. And to sing that anthem brings back wonderful memories, and it fills them with emotions and shit. Why do you think the youngsters don’t respect the anthem anymore? Is it because they don’t stand up when the song is played? Is it because they mumbled while singing it?

Tell me something. What does one gain from singing a song that sounds so dead boring to me? It doesn’t motivate me. It doesn’t leave me feeling nostalgic. It certainly doesn’t make me anymore patriotic than I already am. There seriously has to be good reason to make someone respect something, be it a song, a monument, whatever it is. Am I really that naive to see how pointless it is, to constantly play a song in an effort to make people respect it?

O wise men out there. Please relieve me of this wtf-ness.

note:
It’s a national anthem, dammit. People don’t just respect a song just because it’s a national anthem. You can put Limp Bizkit – Hotdog as national anthem for all I care, but it still doesn’t give me a reason to respect it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not voicing out my disrespect towards the anthem. I sing it loud and proud when the occasion calls for it. Just that some idiot come up with really absurd ideas sometimes and that just overwhlemes with, well, wtf-ness.

At least I understand the meaning of the lyrics well enough. Unlike a particular neighbour with citizens that barely understand a single word of their anthem’s lyrics, lol. Now that is more than disrespect. That’s fucking blasphemy already, but it doesn’t look like they give a flying fuck anyway.