Salam..
Just before I was writing this, I was looking at some pics taken during the Perhimpunan Wira Negara Revolusi 1Malaysia. It is mouthful to pronounce the full name of the event. Mouthful or not,it did not stop a total of 23737 youths from different walks of life to come over to Bukit Jalil and of course, it caught my attention as well.
When I first heard the name of the event, I asked the project director himself, Bro Arman Azhar, Ketua Wira PERKASA. Before that, let me give a little introduction about PERKASA. It is an NGO in Malaysia that fights for the right of the constitution to be followed accordingly. One their main issues raised are regarding the rights of the Malay race in Malaysia. Often misunderstood as racist, they are just another NGO that aims to uphold the constitution and nothing more. In PERKASA, there’s youth wing, which is headed by Bro Arman himself. They are very known to be very vocal as well. Some hate them, some dislike them but majority misunderstood them. Some even feel that they are a bunch of ultra racist individuals that has no life.
To tell you the truth, those in the youth wing that I met, they are just normal individuals like us. Nothing offensive about them and they do not discriminate what so ever. I had my preconceive ideas about them too in the beginning, but hey, you will not know until you make the effort to get to know. Off the stern faces, serious conversations and peaceful demonstrations, they proved to me that they are open, understanding and very youthful at heart! Working with them was not stressful but in fact, it made my weekend fun! J
So how did I lend myself in the event crew?
Simple,I volunteered for it. I wanted to know the other youths of my countries that I did not seem to get more exposure on to. Honestly, I only know a little on cars and almost no knowledge on motorbikes and its community at all. This event, it involved cars, motorbikes, skateboards, BMX and various indie bands all at one place. It was crazy!! And hell lot of people!!
The forgotten misfit.
I asked Bro Arman, what is the gathering/carnival is all about. He told me that it is about the forgotten youth. He wanted to gather the so-called forgotten youth in harmony to make their presence felt and also for others to learn about them. Bro Arman used the term forgotten, The Malaysian Insider news portal used the word misfit.
What about me?
I may not agree with Bro Arman to say it is forgotten. Not that they are forgotten but they were put too much negativity to them. Personally, it still doesn't sound nice to use misfit. They are all well and as fit as a lion! haha. Me kidding there. Nothing is wrong with that :P The only thing missing is the positive public perception.
I can’t deny the fact that the news reports even till movies, the motorbikes community left quite a uneasy perception on to the public.
During the event however, it was just not about the biker community which the popular termed as mat rempit by many, it is really about the youths that was paid less attention about.
They are neither forgotten nor unfit, they are just not given more attention to it.
To be honest, I may be surrounded by intelligent, idealistic and talented youths around me that are very inspired to become a leader... but the gathering opens up my eyes to the other side of the coin.
Most of them may not care on how UN works, international relations, world issues etc...but these are actually a bunch of talented people that have their own skills and waiting to be brushed up, getting the right people to spot them and trying their best to be spotted as well.
From the place I was at, the committee canopy, I could get 270 deg view of the event place, 90 deg blocked by the canopy next to ours :P It was from there that I started to observe...and from the visits to the event areas and talking to others, I learnt even more.
I believe that there are many good things hidden, that are waiting to be unleashed.
What did I observe during the 2 days that I was there...?
I will write that in Part 2 of my blogpost on Perhimpunan Wira Negara Revolusi 1Malaysia.
Till then~
Xoxo
eyem3
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