I remember my days as a teenager in Methodist Girls’ Secondary School in the historic town of Melaka. My classmates were the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians with a handful from other races. We visit one another during the festive seasons. We play, laugh and eat together. We speak English and Malay with one another. Some can even speak Chinese or Tamil. As students, we were made to memorize and recite what was known as the ‘Rukun Negara’ (Malay for ‘National Principles’) during our weekly school assemblies. The five principles were actually printed on the back of our school exercise books:
- Belief in God
- Loyalty to king and country
- Supremacy of the constitution
- Rule of law
- Courtesy and morality
The ‘Rukun Negara’ which aims to encourage unity was proclaimed on Merdeka Day 1970. In the early years, the recitation of the ‘Rukun Negara’ was encouraged at official events, during the State Opening of the Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies. It was an affirmation of our nation’s ambitions of unity, democracy, prosperity, a liberal approach towards our rich and diverse traditional heritage and progress using science and technology.
Over the decades, those noble aspirations and principles were slowly eroded and forgotten by many. I am not sure if our younger Generations X, Y and Z are even aware of our Rukun Negara. Even for our older citizens, we must admit that we are all forgetful people. Through our 65 years of independence, we have allowed many things to distract and confuse us in our nation’s noble aspirations. The result? A nation that is very divided based on race and religion. A lack of understanding and respect among the races. A lack of trust and unity. This is so, so sad. Our diversity should be our strength.
As such, we need to intentionally bring to our remembrance those aspirations and five principles outlined by our founding fathers. Maybe it would be good now, as it was then, to once again recite our Rukun Negara at all our official events as well as in all our institutions of learning. Then Malaysians, of all ages will be able to understand and instil these principles in their lives. With that understanding, together as a people, we can strive towards rebuilding a Malaysia that we all can be so proud of.
Let us be proud Malaysians again!
Mei Wong | 01 Oct 2022
Mei Wong is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.
Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.