"Negarakuku"

I think I have to update to appease a little cute girl known as Gwendolyn ^^, and to appease her, this update must NOT related in any ways to soccer.

Have you ever imagined that your national anthem is a rap song? Well, under normal circumstances, I do not really think that anybody has ever thought of this on their respective national anthems. However, this has already happened in a very beautiful country which is located in South East Asia. This wonderful country that I am talking about is none other than Malaysia, the country which is “truly asia”, according to their tourism promotional campaigns to the people worldwide. That’s beside the point. The point for today is the alternation of the national anthem of Malaysia into a rap song. This alternation of the Malaysian national anthem is done by a Malaysian citizen of the ethnic Chinese who is studying in a university in the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), and the world got to know about this as he posted his well-decorated video of himself singing the song into Youtube, the video sharing website. The video, besides featuring him singing with the Malaysian flag as the background, also features some clips from the Malaysian tourism promotional campaigns as well as an assortment of pictures with regards to Malaysia. The purpose of him doing this is simply to highlight to the world about the biasness in Malaysia (such as racial and religious segregation in the country) as well as to highlight about the rampant corruption within the country. The message is being conveyed through, of course, the lyrics of the song which is in a mixture of Mandarin, Chinese dialects as well as some extracts from the original version of Negaraku.

As all of us have known, the title of Malaysia’s national anthem is “Negaraku”. In the song conjured up by this Malaysian student, the title is “negarakuku”. This title is obviously derived from Negaraku.

Regarding to the reactions in his native Malaysia, there have been mixed reactions there. The government is of course upset with the act that this boy has done, however, they could not sue and penalize this student whatsoever as there is no evident of treason in his video/song. This is basically due to the fact that the student conveys his messages in the song in a careful and smart manner so that it does not suggest anything about him criticizing the country with his own opinions, however, he tried, and succeeded in creating the impression that the message is basically neutral and based on what are really happening in the country.

On the other hand, the Chinese ethnic in Malaysia have been supportive of his actions as someone who dares and has the guts to bring out these problems in Malaysia to the world in this manner has finally emerged out of nowhere. Therefore, he is being a hero and a zero at the same time here. Nevertheless, the student’s family did make an apology to the government on behalf of their son and since his video attracted overwhelming public attention, the student has since removed the video from Youtube. But, the videos are still available in the site as people have been uploading the copies of the videos into the website.

My comments on this? I have no comments on this. I am sorry… (No freedom of speech here and anywhere else^^)