RUKUNEGARA.....???

Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan

Kesetiaan Kepada Raja Dan Negara

Keluhuran Perlembagaan

Kedaulatan Undang-undang

Kesopanan Dan Kesusilaan

       I have consumed loaves of Gardenia bread. Have been buying this since it was first introduced into our market. But it was only yesterday that I noticed that the Rukunegara is printed on its wrapper. Hmmm...goes to show how observant I am!!
        It got me thinking that almost everything that the Rukunegara embraces has eroded over the years. It was introduced when I was in primary school. I remember having to memorise it since we had to chant it during Monday morning assembly. The teachers probably explained it to us but it meant nothing to us then because everyone I knew had a religion albeit different, kings and sultans were just...well...kings and sultans and had no impact on our young lives, we didn't know anything about "perlembagaan" and "undang-undang" except for the ones enforced on us at home and at school, and most of us were polite and courteous to each other.
       We didn't have 1Malaysia. Instead we had "Muhibbah" - there was a song to go along with that:

Muhibbah Muhibbah

Itulah amalan kita semua

Muhibbah Muhibbah

Sejak sedari zaman purbakala

Tunaikanlah ikrar

Satu nusa satu bangsa merdeka

Satu loghat dan satu suara

Dalam Malaysia jaya

Junjung tinggi cita-cita bangsa

Hormatilah perlembagaanya

Marilah kita berganding tangan

Hapuskanlah jurang perbezaan

Muhibbah Muhibbah

Gema bersatu padu satu bangsa

Negarakan makmur bahagia

Dalam Malaysia jaya

If you remember this song then you're definitely my peer! Had to sing this at Monday morning assembly, too, aside from Negaraku and the Selangor state song (there was no Wilayah Persekutuan then). We sure did a lot of singing then it seems. And we were very "muhibbah". My closest friends were Yuhanis Yusoff, Bhajan Kaur and Cheah Yew Sim...definitely the epitome of "muhibbah". We also had civic lessons to further enforce the "kesopanan dan kesusilaan". We didn't define people by race. People were just people and there were those who were different from us in terms of culture etc but we were okay...no big deal. In fact, we couldn't tell the rich kids from the less privileged - it didn't bother us one whit anyway. Friends were friends and foes were foes...all very personal...it had nothing to do with family background, social status etc. Life was a lot simpler then. 

        Now religion (or lack off) is a big issue. Everyone's screaming at each other...those with faith of some sort, agnostics, atheists and variations of these. Everyone wants to be heard and almost noone wants to listen. Many scream insults at each other endlessly....sigh....Now we have racism. People just don't trust and respect each other much anymore. And they also don't trust the "keluhuran perlembagaan". People pooh-pooh the "kedaulatan undang-undang". "Kesetiaan Kepada Raja Dan Negara" is also passe by the look of things. And many agree that there is a serious lack of "kesopanan dan kesusilaan".....big sigh....

        No wonder our Malaysia is no longer "rukun"............