Raya

Ah raya. It's that time of the year again. The very moment of pure bliss. The moment of more jubilation. Then moments of nothingness. And so comes the moment of discontent, nuisance and hence pure hatred.

Hari Raya. It's not that Raya isn't good. Many (Malays) tend to forget however that it still, and always be 'Hari' Raya. Hari. A day. Not a week. Not a month. A day. Isn't that what we were thought? Moderation? Everything in life requires moderation. But no matter how many times we hear that schoenes Lebensprinzip, we ignore it.

The festivities celebrated by Malays ( and I say Malays because it is our 'adat' ) are always closely related to a complete disregard of time. And that disregard of time is seen in the careless way in which it is spent. Doing nothing, sipping coffee, or just 'talking' is almost a Malay national habit.

An invitation to a kenduri in a kampong is invariably for an indefinite time. One may arrive at any time, eat at any time and go off at any time. No one ever arrives on time for a meeting but once started there is no limit to the time it can last. A meeting would therefore start late and end even later, no matter how much the time of the meeting is adjusted to suit everyone.

When there is no awareness of time, there can be no planning and work is never reliable. A community which is not conscious of time must be regarded as a backward society - the more technologically advanced the man, the more he is bound to time. Whats more is that it will remain a backward society. There is no doubt that the Malay failure to value time is one of the most important handicaps of their progress.