On the bright side

With the death of Datin Seri Endon Mahmood we are getting the first single Prime Minister in Malaysian history!

Hehe... sorry... bad joke...

Even though I fancy myself being a smart, ambitious, free-thinker girl with this weird interest in the nitty gritty of the dirty world of politics I find that I don't really know much about the players, especially those playing in our own soil. If you ask me who's the Minister of Health, I would say...


Minister of Foreign Affairs?


What is the purpose of Dewan Rakyat?

I wouldn't be able to pick Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin out of a line-up. Yep, I am that sad when it comes to Malaysian general knowledge.

Even though I have this great vision of myself being a great leader, making changes left and right, and everyone hanging on to everything I have to say, I have never taken any step closer to achieve that vision. The least I can do is officially join a political party or any charity organization right? But nooooo... I guess the Malay part in me dominates that part of my life. Yep, that's me, I'm the typical Malay, all talk no action, angan-angan Mat Jenin je banyak.

I couldn't care less that the first lady of Malaysia had cancer. To me she's just another celebrity that the cancer society can use to further their cause. These celebrities are popping out everywhere and the organizations just gobble them up, milking their celebrity status for their cause. What I find funny about this whole celebrity spokesperson fad is that they (the celebrity) contract a disease then all of a sudden that organization becomes their main priority. They're suddenly promoting the importance of public awareness. Come on la... I know you don't really care about raising public awareness. You just want to help raise more funds to save your own celebrity ass. If they didn't get the disease in the first place, I'm sure they will never work so hard. I doubt that the celebrity even knows that the organization exists.

I think that her efforts to raise the status of batik and kebaya is a waste of time and over-publicized. She could easily use her status to highlight more important stuff like better education system or something, there must be other more important things than fashion, right?

Anyway, when my friend sms-ed me that Datin Seri Endon passed away this morning, I thought "Oh, okay". And then I hear the routine morning speech from a colleague. He announced the news to the rest of the staff and I heard some gasps from the back and kind of felt proud that I was not one of them. Then, he also mentioned that his aunt passed away recently because of cancer too. And the sadness finally hit me.

I realized that it is not death that makes me sad. I feel sad for the loved ones who were left behind. To my colleague's aunt, this stage of life is over. No more cares, no more worries. No need to think about the bills, about the kids, the husband, no house to clean. She just need to hope that her life's work and the strength of her faith is good enough in God's eyes. But to her loved one, they will never see her again, hear her kind words, feel her touch or her love. All they have is a memory which can fade away eventually.

Even though I don't really care about Datin Seri Endon in her living years, I do feel the loss. Only after her death does the news mention all the charity work that she has done. Only now do I know that fashion has not been her main agenda all this while. Her death means it's one less good person in this world. And we all know that we need all the good people that we can get.

My deepest condolences to Datin Seri Endon's family and friends and anyone who ever loved her. I'm really sorry for your loss. But remember every cloud has a silver lining, good things happen to people who die in Ramadhan month.

Al-Fatihah.