Seremban School Students Sing Negaraku In Mandarin, Education Ministry Launches Investigation

Negaraku is the anthem that will always be close to our hearts. Sung in Bahasa Malaysia, the song will definitely make someone shed his or her tears. However, there have been cases in the past where some individuals disrespected the national anthem and recently a viral video related to Negaraku has received tremendous criticism from Malaysians.

The video shows primary students at a vernacular school in Seremban singing the Malaysian national anthem in Mandarin. This has apparently angered a majority of Malaysians who feel that it is very disrespectful to tamper with the original version of the song which is sung in Bahasa Malaysia.

Due to the uproar, as reported by Malay Mail, the Ministry of Education has released a statement on their Facebook page, stating that they will be investigating the matter. The statement said,

“A thorough investigation into the incident is underway which has happened in several other schools. The Education Ministry will not compromise with any parties attempting to go against laws concerning the Federal Constitution, whether deliberately or not.”

Watch the full video here:

Twitter user Mutalib Uthman however, had a different perspective on the matter, pointing out that the teacher was just following a syllabus from textbooks published since 2015. In the conversation below, he also added that there are also schools that sing Negaraku in Arabic and Tamil too, justifying the song’s translations are only because of the schools’ dominant teaching language.

Hopefully the ministry can resolve this sensitive issue peacefully. What do you guys think of this matter? Should national anthems be strictly sung in its national language or can it be translated and sung in a different language for education purposes? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section!

Also read: Watch: Ignorant Malaysians Refuse To Stand Up For ‘Negaraku’, Netizens Enraged