We recently celebrated the independence of our country and after 62 years of building our nation, there is still one aspect that Malaysians still seem to instill in their patriotic spirit.
Cleanliness.
An 18-year-old netizen, Aimanariffinnn, took to his Instagram account to showcase the aftermath of the Merdeka day celebration in a disappointing post, as he had stayed for 2 hours after the event to clean up after hundreds and thousands of Malaysians who left their trash scattered around the location, just seconds after proudly yelling, ‘Merdeka!’ and going home.
Aiman showed his hands after spending his night cleaning up after everyone else.
He wrote, “The night of Merdeka should’ve been a night full of joy, fun and laughter. But it made me feel internally anguished by the depths of our ignorance. We’ve built engineering marvels and defended Islam, but we’ve failed to defend our country from our own ignorance.
After the fireworks had ended, I was perplexed by the sheer amount of garbage that was simply littered all over the area. Literally, seconds after people were screaming ‘Merdeka’, people threw their trash everywhere. If you need an 18-year-old to clean up your trash, then how far have we truly come as an independent nation?”
The poor kid spent 2 hours trying to clean up as much as he could. He even pointed out the amount of rubbish he picked up in the span of 5 minutes.
Ironically, this year’s Merdeka slogan is Sayangi Malaysiaku: Malaysia Bersih which means, Love My Malaysia: A Clean Malaysia.
“Honestly, a country’s success cannot be measured by the height of their skyscrapers, the strength of their military or the mass of their land, but by the actions of the citizens themselves,” added Aiman.
Malaysians should consider the fact that if they were to properly dispose of just their own trash, someone else wouldn’t have to waste hours trying to clean up an entire area. Think of all the time Aiman would have saved to do something productive for himself, or even our public council people who have to clean up our mess day after day.
Aiman’s posting has since garnered over 1,050 reactions.
Thank you Aiman, we need more people with your mindset for our nation to prosper in the future.
Also read: Watch: Malaysians Proudly Stand & Sing Along As National Anthem Plays Through Cafe Speakers