Laman Web SMKLK

The Voice of Young Malaysians

A Mat Salleh asked a Malaysian,
A Young Malaysian,
“Boy, what do you want to be?
What do you want to do when you grow up?
Do you want to be a doctor? Save lives?
Or do you want to save the Earth, trees and animals?
The boy answered,
“No sir, nolah.”
The curios man asked again,
“Do you want peace in the world?
Be like your PM and serve your country?
What is it you want to be?

The boy looked at him an thought deeply,
After a pause, he smiled cheekily and said,
“Not to say I’m not a good boy,
“Not that I don’t think of the world,
but I’m a simple boy and I’m only 16.”

“All I want is less homework from my teacher.
She always says diligence is the ladder to success
and bores us to death with biology and history.
If pa and ma stop pressuring me to get A’s,
I’ll be happy-lah.”

“I want to lepak,
Not always, but sometimes,
Without everyone pointing their fingers at me,
Pa always says,
If only I can be like Ahmad,
He gets A’s all the time,
Ma pula says,
If only I can be like Ah Seng,
He helps with the chores, you see.
Why can’t I be my self? I am lazy, I’ve to
admit, and I listen to the music like Bon Jovi
and Nirvana,
And I fail my test once in a while,
But I get A’s too, you know?

“There’s too much for me to think about now,
so the world and its problem can wait,
“cause I don’t know who to choose,
Susan or Kavitha,
They both make me pening-pening,
And my friends are no better,
When I got money, they come,
When I got none, they go.

What-lah man…….”

“Ah…. talking about money,
Pa gives me a bit only,
Not enough also,
When I asked for more, he said,
‘You wash car, I give you two ringgit,
You cut grass, I give you one ringgit,
You eat, sleep and watch TV, I give you
nothing’

So I never dared ask for more,”

“You see, teenagers have a lot of problem too,
So stop burdening us with the world,
The Government too is gila-gila,
A while, they want us to be caring,
A while, they want us not to lepak,
A while, they want us to join the scouts and
cadets and the band.
Hey, what do they really want-lah?”

“Why cant I be left alone?
I want to be like my friends,
And grow up normal, with no fuss,
To be simple man,
Not someone grand,
Just my self.”

“Yeah, I want to be my self!”

adapted by:
Farah Faizura @ Sofea
(5 ALFA 1996)