Citizenship defines the place one calls home for life, where one rests one’s weary head after having travelled the globe. It gives one identity. It is the place to live out one’s twilight years. Ideally, it is “the best place on earth.”
-Suhaini Aznam in "Privilege called Citizenship", The Star Online 23 July 2007
The idea of ever giving up my Malaysian citizenship was unimaginable. While never truly patriotic in a sense that I never felt very "significant" in my home country, never really felt the noble call to "come back and serve my country", I've been quite attached to Malaysia and can't imagine my family emigrating elsewhere (though i suspect they would very much like to). I rmb when my Malaysian friends studying in Dunedin talk of going "home", as in Auckland, because that's where their parents are, I shuddered at the thought of having to "settle down" at a place where it's not really "home".
In Jap class today, we started a new chapter with introductory discussions on our identity, who we are, with a focus on people with parents of different nationalities. It's interesting how even if someone's been in NZ for years and years, they remain steadfast in holding on to their original nationality. even with the Kiwi passport.
suddenly there's a lot of such themes going ard me. Or perhaps I was just oblivious to it before. But I'm thankful that while I may seem to be confronted (and perhaps a little confused?) about the whole "who am i?", identity searching issue (many times I just push it all aside with a "does it matter?"), I can firmly proclaim that I am a child of God and ultimately, my citizenship is in Heaven.
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