I have great passion and love for this national anthem because it was the very first song that we learned to sing from the school. I acquired this song to my repertoire by hard through mimicking the pronunciation over a period of time during our regular school assembly sessions. The anthem started with the prelude of drum rolls, then the main theme of the song was introduced from the slightly distorted sound of the loudspeakers, here we go our "Negara ku"...
I am extremely upset if not angry, when someone claims this is a copied version. To me this is OUR national anthem chosen by the forerunners of our nation. Yes, this is the land where we " Tanah tumpah nya darah ku!" and our "Negara ku"!
One of the failure of our educational system is, we are taught to shout a slogan but do not know the real meaning of it. The same goes with this national anthem. Why our teachers had never bothered to explain to us the exact meaning the lyrics of our national anthem? Come to think of it, maybe at that time, all the teachers in the non-national schools would not understand what a national anthem is all about. To them, probably it was meant to be just another song to be sung in a routine ceremony where the beautiful "Jalur Gemilang" flag was raised. I doubted very much at that time, at that level of proficiency of Bahasa Malaysia language that we all had, they could ever comprehend the profound and deep meaning of the lyrics of our beloved national anthem!
It took me many years to acquire the skill and command of our national language to understand some of the most difficult meanings of certain portions of the national anthem: (At least this is true for me but I am not sure about the others)
1. Tanah tumpah nya darah ku - As a student, we did not understand why we had to shed blood. To me now, this sentence is the core spirit and essence of our national anthem. It is the duty of all Malaysians to defend the sovereignyy of the nation to the last drop of our blood. That is the implication on the extent of our love towards this country. It does not mean to be violent literally translated, but that would be the spirit of our Malaysian patriotism!
2. Rahmat bahagia Tuhan kurniakan - If we do not believe in God, then the blessing from God is beyond our understanding. In God we all trust! Most of us all are part of the God's kingdom!
3. Raja kita selamat bertakhta - As school kids, we only know that the Prime Minister is the one ruling the country and could not figure out how the role of kings that reign over the country. There was somehow confusion and could not grasp the idea until we grow older.
"Rakyat bahagia BERSATU dan maju" seems simple and straight forward but it took us so many years for us to understand and recognize the need of this "One Malaysia" concept! Our wise forefathers of this land had spelled out this for us long long time ago!
May the great God always bless this country of Malaysia!
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