The time was around 6p.m. I was alone at the office when I felt it. My first thought was that I’ve been working too hard, and that I need to get some food. It gets worst when I got up. It felt as if the office building was shaking. The same sensation you feel in a moving LRT train, but a little bit less. My first instinct was to check Twitter to confirm what I had in mind. First few Tweets has the word “earthquake” on it. I was right.

My Twitter feed flooded with everybody asking if anybody else felt the tremors. Most people in Kuala Lumpur felt it and I’m not the only one who thinks to post about in on Twitter. Minutes later, the news starts to roll in. 7.8 magnitude earthquake hits Sumatra, soon after that it was on CNN, a tsunami warning was issued. Watch this CNN page for latest updates.

This incident makes me realize how dependent I am on getting the latest information through Twitter. How Twitter has become an always on global chat room full of chatters. A few yeas ago it was just a website for status updates, now it’s much more.

My thoughts and prayers goes to the people of Sumatra Indonesia.

When Indonesia coughs, we hears it. When Indonesia sneezes, we feels it. Yes, we are that close. We share earth quakes and smokes from forest fires but not batik and other cultures. We are like siblings with its silly rivalry.

Due to some recent events, the rivalry gets a little be out of hand. Malaysian were accused of stealing Indonesia’s cultural heritage. These are just fuel adding to the already burning fire of anti-Malaysia at Indonesia.

We are really close, geographically and culturally. We speak a similar language. Even thought some words has different context in meaning, but most Malaysian understands Indonesian speaking in their native tongue, and vice versa.

There is a term that both Malaysian and Indonesian speaking people would understands, “Kita Serumpun”. Therefore, of cause some of our cultures rub of each other after all these years. Remixed and adapted.

I hope most Malaysian realize this and most Indonesian, especially the nationalist group that call itself Benteng Demokrasi Rakyat (BENDERA) realizes this also. Instead of going up in arms ready for war, why not we work together looking into ways of preserving our cultural heritage?

News about the earthquake are still coming in as I’m write this post. I hope it isn’t even half as bad as 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that hits Aceh. My thoughts and prayers goes to the people of Sumatra Indonesia.