Unity the all-important theme
DEAR Malaysian brothers and sisters, do you know or understand what Merdeka Day stands for? To me, it is independence day, the day when the Federation of Malaya became independent of the British Empire.
In case you haven’t noticed, every year we have a theme for the celebration with the idea being to give a particular setting, mood or feeling or to address concerns. Looking back, from 1970 there were numerous themes ranging from unity, self reliance and looking forward, as in Vision 2020.
Let us look at one very interesting theme, unity or harmony. This theme was used 14 times between 1970 and 2014, and even the 2015 and 2016 theme “Malaysia, Sehati Sejiwa” (One Heart, One Soul) has connotations of unity. That makes up one-third of all the themes since 1970.
One may ask why unity is being emphasised and given prominence and my response would be, why not? The reason for retaining the “Sehati, Sejiwa” theme could be because it can enhance the people’s spirit of patriotism and love for the country. There were fears that there would be competition in terms of a globalised approach towards the spirit of nationalism. I think this fear lacks base or is not supported by solid evidence.
Patriotism is love for or devotion to one’s country. People may differ in political ideologies but patriotism is a different kettle of fish. It is like having knowledge is one thing but being able to communicate this to others is another.
Looking at events in the last couple of years, one will understand the need to emphasise unity since it is a deep-rooted concern. I do not need to list the events here because almost everyone who is in contact with the various kinds of media is aware of what they are.
Apart from patriotism and unity, I wish to add good values as another current concern. Moving towards developed nation status, we need our citizenry to have and practise good values. We had themes like “Berdisplin Berharmoni” (Discipline and Harmony, 1981), “Amanah Asas Kejayaan” (Honesty Brings Success, 1984) and “Akhlak Mulia Masyarakat Jaya” (Good Values Make a Successful Society, 1997). I do hope the organisers of future national day celebrations will give due consideration to these themes.
As for the rakyat, we have our part to play as well but what we need now is for the government of the day to be, and be seen to be, serious in planning and implementing unity programmes. This should include strict enforcement on anyone tending toward sedition and racial tension which have become issues of serious concern lately. Let us have meaningful programmes rather than skin-deep initiatives. Selamat Hari Merdeka to all.