Malaysia 101: Stripped Citizenship Not An Option

The Pledge – Let’s live together as one people regardless of race, language or religion

I am going to relate here my experience as a teenager attending a secondary school in Singapore in the 60’s. Some of you may not like this story because it is about Singapore but I am telling it because of it’s usefulness and its relevance, anyway.

Here’s the story:

In Singapore in the 60’s, immediately after the separation from Malaysia on 9th August 1965 before the introduction of National Service, the Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, introduced ‘The Pledge’ in all primary and secondary schools which read as follows:

“We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation”.

This was done to instill loyalty, discipline and unity in all the young people of Singapore, both boys and girls regardless of race, language or religion to ensure that the state’s desire to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for the small nation.

Does anyone who studied in Singapore secondary and primary schools in the 60’s and early 70’s remember saying ‘The Pledge’?

The routine was; the bell rang, everybody assembled at a the Assembly Area and the principal and the teachers took their respective positions. The bugle blew followed by the raising of the State Flag and singing of the National Anthem ‘Majulah Singapura’ with everyone standing at ‘Attention’ and after that, The Pledge was read aloud together. Then ‘Stand At Ease’ – ‘Stand Easy’ and the principal and/or teachers will make their announcements followed by ‘Disperse’ and ‘Move To Classrooms’ led by the respective class monitors. The prefects were grouped together in one block.

Singapore then was under threat of communism and other leftist movements where the majority of their members were Chinese and to thwart these movements, all Chinese schools were closed and instead, national and integrated schools were introduced. Gradually, vernacular schools such as Malay and Indian schools were closed as they were getting less and less popular even amongst the Malays and the Indians themselves. However, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay and Tamil were offered as optional subjects in both primary and secondary schools. The integrated schools had two streams, Chinese and English streams and there were also integrated technical schools offering technical subjects which were taught in the two different streams up to the ‘O’ level equivalent qualification either in Grade 1, 2 or 3. At the same time, other types of schools like religious schools such as Madrasah Aljunied, Madrasah Ipoh Lane, Madrasah Wak Tanjong, etc. which mainly taught Islamic subjects and Arabic, were allowed to continue and at the same time English language was also made compulsory in these schools.

The system worked very well, beliefs in communism and extreme socialism were totally eliminated and the schools produced moderate government friendly bilingual students with either an academic or technical education up to School Certificate which was equivalent to the ‘O’ levels, at least and all spoke English. Many went on to enter polytechnics, colleges and universities for their diplomas and degrees. Some opted to further their studies overseas. Of course, the few remaining hard cores were put in jail, rehabilitated and reeducated before being released.

All students who obtained their ‘O’ levels, Pre-university (Higher School Certificates), diplomas and degrees, were snapped up by the job market offered by the many government departments, ministries, quasi-government bodies and the many private companies offering goods and services, shops, restaurant, hotels and factories and many more which were set up in the island state and were growing at a tremendous rate including in the building and construction sectors, shipping, airline and the oil and gas sectors.

I wish to suggest that, to make the 1Malaysia concept more successful, all students in both primary and secondary schools in both national and private in the country, must be made to take a pledge in order to instill in each and every one of them loyalty to the country, one who professes the importance of unity, observes and practices it and maintains a high standard of discipline in order to build a democratic society while conscientiously improving it based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our beloved nation.

Those who are good at writing verses or prose in Malay should try composing a pledge, Malaysian style, and propose it to the PM and the MOE for use in all Malaysian schools as soon as possible.

Best regards.

Hussaini Abdul Karim

http://www.hak55.blogspot.com/