August 31, Malaysia's Independence Day. If I were still back in KL, this would be a long weekend for the family. In the past, back before the advent of cable TV, we would just laze around in front of the idiot box and watch boring parades carried 'live" over the TV stations. Things changed 10 years ago.
Ten years ago on August 31, I wasn't in front of any TV. I was in Langkawi covering an event - a go-kart race. The Sun, the newspaper that I was working for at that time, sent me there. The Sun also had its own representatives for the race - not that any of the four blokes could race properly! We were all there just for the fun. For me personally, it was more of a much needed holiday than anything else. And being the only rose among the thorns had its privileges. I got golden treatment everywhere I went.
I was in the media room when the shocking news of Princess Diana's death reached me. It must be a joke. That was my first thought. In fact, that was everybody's first thought. But no, a reporter from Berita Harian swore that it was the truth. You must remember, in 1997, the Internet was still in its infancy. There was no wireless broadband and no SMS to send messages around. It took a while for us to verify the story.
Boy, all of us in the media room were in shock when reality sank in. Well, none of us knew Princess Diana personally (how many people actually did anyway?) but she was such a big personallity, the most recognisable woman in the world. The news of her sudden and tragic death was just a bit hard to swallow. And over the next few hours, we scurried to find more news of her death, instead of paying attention to the go kart race! Ha ha ha. Of course, we did write about the race after it ended but it was naturally overshadowed by something else that was much, much bigger.
Well, it's been 10 years. And it's the Merdeka Day that holds the most vivid memory for me. Ironically, it's not about Malaysia but a foreign lady from afar.
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2 comments:
On that fateful day, I remember downing some beers with friends & waiting fer the highly anticipated L'pool v Newcastle game which was postponed due to the tragedy. Bollocks!
But let's face it, the grieveing British public were responsible fer Diana's death as it was they who had an insatiable appetite fer dirt/pix which led to papparazi frenzy. Tabloid-reading public killed her!
That's so true. It was their thirst for anything Diana that got the papparazi so enthusiastic in the first place. Ironic huh? So what happened to the game eventually?? No wonder you remember so well. Haha.
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