One year ago I had planned to celebrate our 50th Merdeka anniversary by doing two things. The first is to pen a celebratory verse and the other is to fly the Malaysian flag in my house for one whole year till 31 August this year.

Negaraku
Tumpahnya darahku
美丽的国家
My country, my home.

That done I went on to put up not one flag but two Jalur Gemilang; our Glorious Stripes. One is placed on the front of our house. No one can miss that. The other hangs in our sitting room on the balustrade. Some friends would enquire why I fly the flag to which I just ignore them or ask them: “ Why not?”

But my wife has to put up with the inconvenience, invariably in good cheer. Her Chinese friends who do not know me would ask, “Never knew your husband is a Malay.” And her Malay friends would do the reverse, “Your husband Chinese, bukan? This amuses her no end and she relishes in telling them, “My husband is a nationalist so he flies his flag,” not quite bothering to explain the politically troublesome term. Normally the conversation starter ends there and they go on to talk about the weather or some of their more consuming passions.

For me three things are of significance as I celebrate the Merdeka. My Country, my King, and my God. They all affirm who I truly am regardless of what others may say or do.

Negaraku,
Tanah tumpahnya darahku,
Rakyat hidup bersatu dan maju.
Rahmat bahagia
Tuhan kurniakan,
Raja kita selamat bertakhta

Oh, My Motherland,
The Land where my life began,
Where people live in harmony and prosperity,
With God-given blessings of happiness,
Our King reigns in peace.

The composer comes to the point very quickly. Ours is surely the shortest anthem in the world. It has just 19 words not counting the refrain. And that’s all it takes for us to be a great nation in all sense of the word.

The first two words set the tone, the mood, the dignity and the acknowledgement of my citizenship. That is why I take great joy and pride in singing it. Negaraku. My country, my home, my motherland and it means just this together with all the rights, privileges and responsibilities that come with it. Now and forever.

The second line loses all its nuances when translated simply as the Land where my life began. It literally means the earth where my blood is poured out. In the old days, childbirth is not in a clinical maternity ward. When the water bag of the mother-to-be bursts, her blood spills onto the earth when the baby is born, thus begins the life-long bonding with its motherland - tanah tumphnya darahku.

At the time of independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman, the then Chief Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, realised that we had no national anthem. True to his quintessential nature, he suggested a worldwide competition but no suitable entries were found.

So some composers of international repute were roped in for this national undertaking. Again all were found unsuitable.

The Perak State anthem was chosen instead as its melody sounded indigenous and balmy enough. New lyrics for the National Anthem were written by the panel with the Tunku himself as chief lyricist.

The song had been very popular on the island of Mahé in the Seychelles, where the Sultan of Perak had formerly been living in exile. It seems he heard it at a public concert on the island, a song to a popular French melody, originally composed by the French lyricist Pierre Jean de Beranger who died in Paris in 1857.

The tune later made its way into an Indonesian Bangsawan, which was performing in Singapore and became an overnight hit under the title Terang Bulan or Bright Moon. It endured as a local evergreen, being played at parties, in cabarets and sung by almost everybody in the 1920s and 1930s.

When I was younger, I remember my maternal grandma playing the Terang Bulan on her 78 rpm vinyl record whenever we visited her in Nibong Tebal, 20 miles from Georgetown where we lived. I thought I remember her gyrating to the tune. I am not sure. But she did definitely sing it to her heart’s content.

Negaraku, how sweet the sound. It has both been endearing and enduring over the past 50 years, nicely pastoral and cosmopolitan both at the same time. Try to change it, one immediately draws flak no matter how noble the intention.

In 1992, the anthem was officially given a new upbeat tempo, which proved unpopular. Some grumbled that the altered beat was like circus music. In July, 2003 there was a move to rename the Negaraku to Malaysiaku. There was an immediate public outcry. The controversy fortuitously paved the way for the anthem to be re-arranged and returned to the more congenial pre-1992 pace. Recently a Malaysian student in Taiwan tried to rap it up on YouTube and immediately got rapped for it although a tad too unkindly.

The last three lines sum it all up rather neatly:
Where people live in harmony and prosperity,
With God-given blessings of happiness,
Our King reigns in peace.

Therein lies our hope and our redemption.

The Negaraku ends with Raja kita selamat bertakhta or“ Our King reigns in peace.” This is a powerful four-word summation of our nation as a constitutional monarchy. This is what I understand as My Country, My King。

The Rukun Negara or canons of nationhood or our national ideology buttress this notion in similar vein. The Rukun Negara is our experiment to foster unity through building up an exemplary civil society based on the supremacy of the constitution and rule of law, and the institution of the monarchy. Interestingly, the five rukuns start off with Believe in God. This gives an important spiritual dimension to our endeavor for nationhood.

As a non-Muslim minority living in a predominantly Muslim country, this hallowed space is very reassuring indeed. It allows and guarantees my personal liberty to celebrate my faith in good conscience, both in the privacy of my home and in the public square, without fear or threat of undue interference or restriction. However, of late there are reasons for me to be concerned that things may just turn out otherwise. But God is bigger than this.

As a Christian, I am affirmed by the first canon or rukun which encourages me to put my trust in God and God alone because there is no God but God as proclaimed by Surah Ikhlas in the Qu’ran. This sits very well with my belief in the uniqueness of the oneness of God as recorded in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 “…The LORD our God, the LORD is one…” and in the Gospel of Mark 12:29 which reiterates this scriptural truth.

Negaraku, My Country, My King, My God, how sweet the sound. How I love this song. Don’t let anyone spoil my love song by trying to change the tune.

Negaraku. This can be a love song for all of us if only we can find a little space in our crowded hearts to sing it as it was meant to be.
Merdeka! (By BOB TEOH/ MySinchew)