Back To RUKUN NEGARA.

Another Speak Up call, this time from Jacqueline Ann Surin ( The Sun, August 16) who asked why "The RUKUN NEGARA rings
hollow, even more today than before," and how it can be "made more meaningful than a mere recitation...of an oft-used mantra by politicians and the media..." The Editorial added: "she would rather celebrate Merdeka scaling Mount Kinabalu than reciting the Rukun Negara..."

RUKUN NEGARA was drawn up and proclaimed after the MAY 13 1969 INCIDENT, a racial conflict and bloodbath which NO MALAYSIAN WHO SAW IT WOULD WANT TO HAPPEN AGAIN. Those born after the blood curdling tragedy or were too young to understanding it, may therefore, take RUKUN NEGARA lightly as just some sanctified jumbo-mumbo which must be recited at gatherings and functions.....


Talk to some senior citizens who witnessed the tragedy, and you'll appreciate what RUKUN NEGARA is. It's an encapsulation and a pronouncement of national intent and aspirations: to achieve national unity, preserve a democratic way of life, create a fair and just sosiety, ensure a liberal approach to cultural traditions, and build a progressive society. The five PRINCIPLES are points of reference in the EFFORT TO ACHIEVE THE NATIONAL GOALS AND ASPIRATIONS.

We haven't achieved all that we want yet, right? There're many problems and impediments which stand in the way, such as those which are the very subject of the Bloggers' scorn and the Scribe's cynicism. To speak up and to fight these impediments, there must be some ground rules or otherwise it will be a free-for-all. The RUKUN NEGARA SETS THE RULES. Even soccer or footbal has its rules and even Pele, Medona or David Becham would get a red card if a rule is violated!

Think of the wars, the bloody conflicts and bickerings in other countries, the bombings, the muggings and the riots....... If Malaysia had been able to keep crime down to a minimum ( and its increasing!), it must be because we're on the whole law abiding citizens. A lot more must be done and the young people must get on with it. But there must be a common intent and purpose, a common goal, and a common set of rules for achieving it.

Do you have other rules in minds? Are they better than what the architects of RUKUN NEGARA have formulated? If you think so let's here it, Man.Only a diamond can cut another diamond.....