Selayang Sundays Print
Written by straits-mongrel   
Monday, 26 October 2009 13:39

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Batman meets Pokemon up in the Selayang skies every weekend. In fact just about every superhero and cartoon character is up there jostling for a square foot to flap about. Down on terra firma, their more common incarnations steer these kites by tugging at strings.

 

This is the Selayang kite field, just a stone's throw from Batu Caves and fringed by the MRR2.

 

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Perhaps it's the character of kites, but one feels light around here, even when the clouds seem to heave a burdened sigh. No matter - it's play time, and it's smile time.


No kite? There're dozens of kite vendors lining the entrance of the park. You'll find a design that surely suits your personality. Some look dubious in being able to stay aloft, but if you insist on Performance Now, then be prepared to fork out the bucks for one of those two-handed control kites on steroids. 

 

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Here families gather. After all, some things in life are still free. You see all sorts. Some come well-coordinated as a family unit.

 

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If you're planning on some low-expense quality time, it's best to pack some some snacks and drinks. Otherwise, the neighborhood ice-cream man is quite a magnet.

 

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But it's the faces that grab you; if you're not always looking upwards, that is. You'll come across some of the cheekiest kids this side of the valley.

 

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On the other hand, some just focus on having fun.

 

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And when a kite finally takes off after catching the breeze, the look on a kid is simply quite unforgettable.


It reminds you that we are here for them. All that we fight for - good governance, good stewardship, clean rivers and lands, a sound education, love - is our gift to the next generation.

 

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That they may too someday hold the very strings that pilot this nation to better heights. May they do this with joy and wonder...

 

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...Yet never lose sight of the values that hold us together.

 

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May they remember to share, regardless of tribe or creed. After all, melanin isn't currency; love is.


The historian Farish Noor often asserts that the setting up of neutral spaces is critical in nation-building - spaces which are devoid of politics and propaganda, where people are allowed to just be.

 

He writes: "Democratic politicians in Malaysia and elsewhere should therefore understand one simple fact: That democracy is not a license for every sectarian grouping to come forth and make exclusive sectarian demands for itself and at the expense of the rest of the nation.


"While Malaysia’s race and religion-based lobby groups have been calling for their own specific interests to be met, when was the last time any Malaysian group called for a simple thing like a playground, a common neutral space where Malaysians of all races and religions could come together on a universal basis, as citizens?"


It is a point worth noting.

 

Scores of town padangs around the country, where once football was played among youths, have been sterilised with sculptures and billboards bearing nationalist slogans. Talk means little when it destroys this medium for interaction.


The Selayang kite field reminds us of our collective home, the place where we dwell. In this home, the grass is just as green as the other. In this home, our children play together.

 

In this home, we are family.


Pictures / Suatu Ketika

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SAJ |2009-10-27 00:01:09
Really a beautiful story written by a true blue Anak Bangsa Malaysia.

Thanks a million....
Nanda  - Amazing Pictures |2009-10-27 15:09:54
Beautiful pictures. Respect
hybk |2009-12-15 17:06:11
my family n i go there every weekend for kite flying. Now, it gives a very different meaning when i tell people to 'fly kite'