Setia - 21 years on

Picture by Choo Choy May

The man who was responsible for that famous (infamous?) patriotic song of our Form 5 year, Tok Rahmat, recently wrote a memoir of his times as Information Minister. You can read the write ups here and here.

Now ailing with cancer, Tok Mat did not hold anything back in his book, and he revealed that the song was actually an UMNO propaganda song to counter the split in the party during Tengku Razaleigh's challenge to Mahathir in the late 80's.

Still, I have fond memories of the song. Stephen Chung and I used to love to sing it, it was emotionally stirring to be reminded that we have this "Negara yang Tercinta" to serve. At the age of 17 and looking forward to go out into the world, it was really heady stuff then.

Now, with most of us reaching middle age, it is easy to be cynical about the song's lyrics. But I prefer to believe that most of us do find it within us to believe in them. Actually, how we felt did not really change. What changed was some people destroying our perceptions about our place in this country. And that realization hurts every time I relive the song.