“ At this solemn moment therefore I call upon you all to dedicate yourselves to the service of the new Malaya: to work and strive with hand and brain to create a new nation, inspired by the ideals of justice and liberty – a beacon of light in a disturbed and distracted world.”
Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s first prime minister, Speech on the Proclamation of Independence, 31 August 1957
Merdeka (independence) Day on 31 August is Malaysia’s national day. This year it marks the country’s 56 years of independence from Great Britain in 1957. A few leading radio stations in Kuala Lumpur got together to organise a charity event in support of orphanages in the city.
Kerk Boon Leng Photographs & Notes 
A tutorial on luminance of diversity aided by snippets of a thousand words showing a nation in sobering peace, mindful of the on-going strife elsewhere.
Observation. The lens of the messenger is best described as a ‘soul-catcher.’ Each and every take, save for the little ones, harness expressions of a ‘sobering’ peace, yearning for the utopian ‘one human race’ construct.
Such is the highest linguistic any culture or religion, based on common ethical foundations, that speaks with pride in the public domain. One register lower, you meet a distinct but welcome ‘race and culture’ linguistic. This register is the essence of multiculturalism. This register is embraced without contention as long as its display is harmonious with other races and cultures. This register is embraced without contention as long as individuals are free to embrace any culture or religion of their choice. The late Tunku’s utopia was jacked into the matrix at this juncture.
The issue lies at the bottom register where you meet the ‘religious linguistic.’ Religion happens to rock our spiritual boat, but in order to arrive at this utopia, the underlying solemnity displayed in the collage is asking that we keep our ‘religious linguistic’ private and refrain from wearing it in the public domain.