I walked thru this familiar ground
Yet was greeted by strange faces;
Malaya,
You were once my refuge,
But Your compound seemed alien to me now,
Or perhaps I have become alien to You.
Your buildings and walls once shadowed me
They spoke to me since I first came;
I have no lecturers but
The bricks that fortified You.
I have no teachers but
The stones and pebbles that graced Your floor.
These artifacts had recorded the voices
Of Great Men who were once Your residents.
They are my Masters and Professors,
As I walked from those trees to the others,
I heard their learned discourses
And was enlightened
And was fulfilled
And was overwhelmed
Encouraged
Spirited…
But today, I heard my Teachers spoke on another subject,
I heard cries of contempt and disgust against
The Plunders, Rapists, Rascals, Robbers, Squanders and Thieves
Who are occupying You, Malaya.
They insolently took the chairs of my Teachers,
They unashamedly donned my Professors’ robes,
Yet the whole world knew very well their true worth.
I wonder if their conscience has the same knowledge.
Malaya,
Today, for the first time, I felt unwelcomed
By You and Your new folks,
I find no peace nor belongingness among those familiar trees.
I walked the same path but felt not the same.
You have reconstructed Your distinguished walls
With brittle bricks,
You have plastered the glorious halls,
With dirty paints.
You have silenced the voices of my Teachers
I hear not the music of their learned discourse today;
Only groans and moans and of course,
Those cries of contempt against Your new owners.
Malaya, my beloved Malaya
Perhaps, it’s really time for me to go.
I cannot stay too long, nor would I want to
(at least not in this present order of things)
But I will come back for You;
If only You would call
When You stripped off those dirty paints and crush those brittle bricks,
My Masters’ voices will be heard once more,
And I shall hear them, from anywhere
And I shall come to You again.
But for now, I can only say,
Farewell Malaya, farewell.
Jack - 2005
