It’s been 10 days since the passing of Yasmin Ahmad. I find it very hard to write about it as much as I find it hard not to. Like many other greats we’ve lost this year, news of her death came so suddenly. However, none of the other deaths carry as much impact to Malaysia than hers and hers alone.
I read that some want to portray her as the true icon of the 1Malaysia concept. If that was to happen, in her spirit, then I truly believe that true unity is possible in a nation so diverse as ours.
But it is quite impossible in reality.
For how many people share her passion for diversity, her acceptance of all that is different and her ability to make us feel that we are all the same inside, under our dark, yellow or white skins.
Even if we dare think it, how many dare translate that into actions, such as hers, to portray the morphing of different cultures, different tastes into a single melting pot that everyone can feed from together?
And how many can do it without getting onto another’s bad side? Or still be liked and loved for it at the end of the day?
I view her in that light. And when she passes, that light left with her into the darkness.
But she will be remembered, both in tears and in laughter, for the many things she has done for our country, for the many times she has touched us and left us tearing up, even if it’s just for a few seconds before every Merdeka, Deepavali, Raya or CNY.
There are many people who are not willing to share their cultures with others, nor do they want to understand the cultures of others different from them. With Yasmin Ahmad, rest her soul, she opened up the barriers, let us all in, taught us and fed us with hope and love.
If some say that she left us too early and that her work here is not done, I say that if she is sorely missed for the things she did in the short time she was here, then her work is.
She will be missed. She still is being missed.
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