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By Mihar Dias September 2026
Malaysia Day arrived in Alor Setar this year.
And, mercifully, nobody needed a million-ringgit budget to celebrate it.
There was no grand stage.
No rows of plastic chairs.
No VIP tent.
No giant LED screen.
No sound system booming patriotic songs across the neighbourhood.
No long speech about national unity delivered to people who were already united.
There was just Pak Tam.
Pak Tam is a friendly paraplegic artist in Alor Setar.
On 16 September, at about 5pm, he wheeled himself out of his car in his motorised wheelchair and headed for a patch of green in front of the mosque at Taman Rakyat, Mergong.
He set up a folding table.
Put up a bunting.
His wife brought out a kettle of coffee.
And they served biscuits and roti mayat.
Free.
That was it.
Malaysia Day — Taman Rakyat edition.
No fireworks.
No marching band.
No dancing.
No VIP speeches.
Just coffee, food and neighbours.
And then something terribly dangerous happened.
People actually came.
One came.
Then another.
Then another.
Someone brought kuih.
Someone else joined in bringing fruits.
People started talking.
The gathering grew.
And then Pak Tam did something that made the whole affair even more Malaysian.
He read patriotic poems.
No microphone.i
No loudspeaker.
Just Pak Tam, standing — metaphorically, at least — before his little audience and reciting his poems about Malaysia.
The crowd listened.
And applauded.
The applause was apparently quite rousing.
Pak Tam continued.
By the time dusk began settling over Taman Rakyat, however, reality had caught up with him.
His voice had become hoarse.
Naturally.
There was no loudspeaker to do the work for him.
No professional sound system.
No technician adjusting the volume.
No microphone to ensure that the patriotism reached the next taman.
Just a man using his own voice until his voice began to give out.
There is something rather moving about that.
And something rather embarrassing for the rest of us.
Because while the country can spend enormous amounts of energy amplifying patriotism, here was one man who had none of the equipment and still managed to make people listen.
And then, apparently, word reached the local ADUN.
He came too.
Good for him.
It was nice that he joined the gathering.
But one cannot help wondering:
Why did he have to be told?
Malaysia Day has been sitting on the calendar for years.
Surely politicians know when it is coming.
Perhaps the ADUN was waiting for the official programme.
Perhaps he was waiting for an invitation.
Perhaps he was waiting for somebody to print the bunting.
Pak Tam wasn't.
He simply decided:
Let's have coffee.
And that may be the most subversive Malaysia Day celebration of all.
Because Pak Tam did something governments and politicians often find remarkably difficult.
He started something without a committee.
He did something without a budget.
He did something without waiting for permission.
He did something without first asking who should get the credit.
And he did it from a wheelchair.
That last part should make the rest of us slightly uncomfortable.
Pak Tam is getting on in age.
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