By Maisarah Miskoon                 

An esteemed musical composer by the name of Zubir Said once cited the Malay proverb “Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung” (“You should hold up the sky of the land where you live”) as inspiration when composing the significant piece of music, the national anthem of my home country, Singapore. Many never knew or will get to know him, but this particular composition was key to the country’s independence in 1965. It is sung in Malay till this day to honor the language of the indigenous people of the region. It did not mean much to me all this time until this very summer when Google did a Zubir Said doodle on the 22th of July to commemorate his 107^th birthday.

Needless to say, I was stunned. I was surprised that someone in Google actually knew who this dude was, and came up with a doodle to honor him. I would’ve been more amazed if there is a graphic designer within the company who is Malay.

Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that there are many successful Malays out there making their mark in the world, let alone a Malay person from Singapore, but it is just so rare to I see an acknowledgement for the success of one. And it’s pretty darn inspiring. Like this figure, I too come from a small, albeit, thriving island in search of greener pastures. There are so many other parallels that could be drawn between us and I would give anything to talk to the man who was an iconic figure in Singapore during his time and now, a man who gained global recognition posthumously.

Being a Malay person in Singapore was not a big deal until a decade ago when the Chinese majority swelled from 50% to 74% due to lax immigration laws (to help increase decreasing birth rates because the government failed to encourage its people to procreate. I kid you not. There was a campaign and everything. Singaporean women were just not having any of it, thankfully). Unfortunately, Singaporean Malays now only make up 14% of the entire population of 5.2 million. We’re like the minority of minorities here. I am not including the Malaysian Malays in this population because we’re relatively different in upbringing, influences, and to a certain extent, our values and outlooks.

I’ve gone back to Singapore before during the winter break, but going back during the summer was a whole lot different than I expected it to be. First of all, I never knew that living under the same roof as my mother would be the bane of my 2-month existence. Needless to say that coming back to Portland, and doing my own laundry the way I want it to be done, soothed my soul. Second of all, the view outside my 13^th floor window changed. I knew that this would happen eventually due to the fact that they were preparing for construction when I flew back earlier this year, I just didn’t know that everything would be gone. The entire landscape from my window changed.

Let me start from the beginning. Despite gaining independence just a little over 50 years ago, Singapore is already internationally recognized as a first-world country with one of the busiest shipping ports in the region, due to our strategic location. We started out as an immigrant country, like America, but since we started relatively late in the game, we developed pretty fast as a nation thanks to a man named Lee Kuan Yew who went to Cambridge and came back to set up a solid and strong government back home. We now have strong international relations with practically every leading Western nation out there, including America.Even at 90, old man Lee is still going strong. The little background information alludes to the drastic changes outside my bedroom window. Singapore changes really quickly to keep up with the ever-changing world, and with it, her landscapes. Even though I know that the upgrading of the public pool and public stadium would benefit the community in the long run, I am saddened by the fact that nothing stays the same for too long in Singapore; home did not look, or feel like home after a while because things change every two decades.

Biologically, I know that I am not the same person I was 10 years ago due to cell regeneration either, but there was a part of me that wished that things remained the same. I felt that without the tangible backdrop from my childhood, I had lost the intangible memories associated with that landscape, and with it my so-called roots, or the intangible values that shaped me as a person. I felt lost until I saw what Zubir said. There are a few ways to interpret the phrase “Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung”, and the one which made sense to me the most was its meaning of making the most with what you have. Whatever my roots may be, they do not define me. They’re there to remind me how far I’ve come but there are just too many milestones I’ve yet to conquer.