OVER the decades, this newspaper has carried many opinion pieces on Negaraku. Two of which were my columns — one accounting on the origins of the national anthem (December 2017), and the other Negaraku as a national symbol and icon. Some have described it as an experiment in national integration, viz, allowing for the “diversity” in which the national anthem can be sung. Such an attitude is deviant.
What we are facing is an experiment in national disintegration. This is not a question of “should not mock Negaraku and Jalur Gemilang” but one of extreme irreverence to the spirit of nationhood. I have to stress this again this time around as in my many previous columns. We know that Negaraku, as well as the meanings in its lyrics, is a cultural symbol, an icon for nation-building and national integration.
In my January column early this year, titled “The Anthem Negaraku: National Symbol and Icon”, I shared the sentiment that as a nation, we must come to accept common symbols, icons or memorials as representative of collective ideas and reaffirmation of the nation’s existence. It tells about our shared belief and history. These work together, making dominant cultural and historical values, as well as attitudes and beliefs a natural phenomenon. We are experiencing a disconnect in national cohesion. Our narrative is in disarray.
As Tuesday’s Leader of this newspaper remarked, Negaraku is a big deal. It is about good citizenship. And good citizenship is not only expected from the man in the street, but from the very guardians of the nation. And here lies the major problem. Lapse of judgment, deliberate and conscious policy at further compromising on the national spirit?
Why must the Education Ministry, through its various agencies, in particular dealing with the curriculum, approve the Chinese and Tamil lyrics for their Year 5 History textbooks? And if so, and published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, why must the ministry issue a statement on action to be taken to “prevent such incident from happening” (referring to the video of the national anthem in Mandarin). And why should textbooks provide the national anthem in their vernacular languages “to help children understand the meaning of the lyrics” (NST, Dec 8)? Sure. We can celebrate unity and diversity — but in other ways.
If Chinese and Tamil schoolchildren do not understand the national anthem in the national language, than there is much that is not right with the foundation of the nation. And teaching Negaraku in Arabic does not help either. Why must sekolah agama and tahfiz get their students to sing the Malaysian national anthem in Arabic? This is what I call “Melayu mengada-ngada nak jadi Arab”. Enough of this nonsense.
In the first place the ministry must not publish (by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka) such a textbook. This is the mentality of the apologetic Malay — a misplaced one by the Malay political and bureaucratic leadership. There is absolutely no need to have such lyrics in Chinese, Tamil, Arabic or any other languages.
If it was meant to be only for vernacular schools, the sentiment and policy are not only irrelevant, but also destructive to national integration in cultivating reverence for the national language, national anthem and other national institutions. The problem is our own making. We have imbued this destruction of the nation in the very fragmented and polarised school system that we have allowed to exist.
Respect the nation. Retract this policy and expunge the translations from the respective textbooks. Better still, the national leadership must have the guts to begin the move for a one-school system.
All other systems, and all comparison with the National School System are not relevant. Where is our future if we deliberately allow and formalise irreverence for nation-building, national integration and nationhood?
It is shocking to know that we ourselves have institutionalised this fragmentation. But others would celebrate this as an experiment in diversity for national integration. It is more like nurturing and celebrating the seeds for national disintegration.
We must begin a national campaign at renewing the spirit of nationhood. Singing the national anthem in the national language at all times and on all occasions, is not only a ritual, it is also a spiritual act of citizenship.
The writer is a professor at ISTAC-IIUM and the first recipient of the Honorary President Resident Fellowship at the Perdana Leadership Foundation