What is “Merdeka”?

Wednesday (25/08/2010)
a) Patriotic Song: Tanggal 31
· We watched the computer clips for this song. We also watched the clip of “1 Malaysia” song. One was a modern version while another was an older version which explains the black and white colour clip vs. to colourful clip as of today’s tv.
· In the classroom, we read the lyrics and understand the interpretation. Then, we sang together happily with “Merdeka” spirit. We only sang the first 2 verses.
Tanggal 31
Bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh
Merdeka ! Merdeka !Tetaplah merdeka
Ia pasti menjadi sejarah
Tanggal 31
Bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh
Hari yang mulia
Hari bahagia
Sambut dengan jiwa yang merdeka
Mari kita seluruh warga negara
Ramai-ramai menyambut hari merdeka
Merdeka !
Tiga satu bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh
Hari mulia negaraku merdeka

· We learnt new words like “Independence”, history and happy spirit

b) What is “Merdeka”?
· These few days the kids have been seeing their friends making flags or even heard them singing Negaraku and saying “Merdeka”?
· Chun Kit: Merdeka means we don’t have to come to school.
· Haaa……that’s true but why is this public holiday important?
· Who gave us Merdeka?
Shi Jie: The Government.
Qian Joe: Is Malaysia’s birthday.
· We started comparing the kids and adults in Malaysia with others from some unfortunate countries. According to Wikipedia, there are still afew non-independent countries.
· Why can we buy things easily and freely compared to them? Why are there no soldiers surrounding our cities compared to theirs?
· Merdeka or Independence means we are free to enjoy the things around us. We are free to speak up, to go shopping, to visit friends and to travel around.
· Thus, in Malaysia we can see people of different races working and socializing together. In fact, this is the important factor that entitled us “Merdeka” from British.
· If Malaysians do not appreciate this freedom, there might be war and Merdeka is meaningless. Do you want to live in riot? The kids immediately said “No”.

c) History of Malaysia.
· Malaysia’s origin people are believed to be indigenous and the Malays. As our country is located in a strategic place, many countries at that time wanted to monopolise Malaysia or Tanah Melayu. Americans, Dutch, British came for trading. Then, more people around the world came to trade including Indians and Chinese. That explains why we have Malaysians Chinese and Indians.Finally, British is the more powerful country that govern our country. The Sultans and Kings had to obey their instructions. Merdeka was not given. When Japanese invaded Malaysia, many countries teamed up to defeat Japan. Eventually, Japanese surrendered and people inTanah Melayu started negotiating “Merdeka” from the British.
· The British required the unity of the people. That was why our Father of Independence; the late Tunku Abdul Rahman together with a Chinese leader and Indian leader flew to London and won the negotiation. On the day of 31st. August, 1957; everyone of different races went to the stadium with abundance of joy; celebrating this memorial day, “Independence Day”.

d) Malaysia leaders.
· Headed by the Royal (King and Queen) and assisted by the leaders; “Prime Ministers”. The kids were shown portraits of different leaders including the current sixth Prime Minister, “YAB Dato' Sri Mohd. Najib Bin Tun Hj. Abdul Razak.
· Pictures of various races celebration were also shown. Example: Hari Raya Puasa, Deepavali, Gong Xi F Cai, Permainan Gasing, Lion Dance and also Thaipusam.