A World of Harmony...It is a dream-an impossible dream?However,
it was real for just three hours when my better half and myself were at the Istana Budaya-our national theatre last week.How I wish for it to continue for just another hour at least, if not forever...
The late Martin Luther King Jr said:"I have a dream". The last I remember about him was that he got shot for it.However dangerous it is, everyone of us has a dream;so am I.We have our dream for ourselves,our families,our countries and the our world.It only becomes a danger when one tries to realise that dream -sometimes, but not all the time. So, shall we keep on dreaming just to be safe?All will remain a dream if none of us wake up to do something about it.
The Istana Budaya itself was a dream of a few Malaysians to see a national theatre of international standard.In fact,I planned to see its grand opening a few months ago,but fate made it such that I could not be there.Now that dream is a reality.I was there on the 12th Nov.,1999 watching the Royal Command Performance of the Vienna Volksoper Symphony Orchestra, sponsored by Toyota Classics with a theme A World in Harmony. And what a real performance it was!There was a tremendous applause at every piece.
While joining the audience to clap,my mind went wondering about the performance of my companies and also about our Malaysian economy.How nice it would be if I could do the same?
Or may be it was a dream after all. That harmony only exists in the world of music,but not in our real world.Looking at the world we live to-day; it is more appropriate to call it the World at War! Not only the people are not at peace with one another and within themselves,the environment bio-diversity also is being destroyed.The state of war is all over the globe-big and small,international and domestic.May be,the previous two World Wars did not teach us enough lessons to learn to live in peace with one another.If we do not learn,most likely history will repeat itself, sooner or later...
When can a family,a nation and the world would live in harmony?And what does it take to achieve that?The answer most likely will come from understanding the man himself.
I think,may be we all can learn something from the musical performance.During the show, I observed that the conductor, the singers,the musicians and the audience were at their very best.Everyone was playing their roles and obeyed the house rules.If we can be doing that for three hours,why can't we continue doing it forever?
Actually,it is THE QUESTION for all of us to answer-the sooner the better before things could get worse.
By the way,it would be music to my ears when one fine day,I will wake up to A World of Harmony.....and my heart will be elevated to a state of al-mutmainnah,insyaAllah.
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