By KJ John

After May 13, 1969, which witnessed the worst riots and the subsequent declaration of emergency laws, the first National Consultative Council of Malaysia (Majlis Perundingan Negara or Mapen) created the five principles of the Rukun Negara.

While most of us simply memorise the five principles, the drafters had some even more important issues and concerns which were captured in the preamble to the Rukun Negara.

Please see below a translated version:

Whereas our country, Malaysia nurtures the ambitions of:

• achieving a more perfect unity amongst the whole of her society;
• preserving a democratic way of life;
• creating a just society where the prosperity of the country can be enjoyed together in a fair and equitable manner;
• guaranteeing a liberal approach towards her rich and varied cultural traditions; and,
•  building a progressive society that will make use of science and modern technology.

Now therefore we, the people of Malaysia, pledge to concentrate the whole of our energy and efforts to achieve these ambitions based on the following five principles:

• Belief In God
• Loyalty To King and Country
• Supremacy of the Constitution
• Rules of Law
• Courtesy and Morality

The formulation of the five principles of the Rukun Negara were the efforts of the council headed by then prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. The overarching aim of the Rukun Negara was to create harmony and unity among the various races in Malaysia.

Premised upon such an understanding, the New Economic Policy (1971-1990), or NEP, was launched in 1971 with the explicit aim to create or engineer unity among the various races in Malaysia, using the NEP as a socio-economic equity programme.

The primary goal of the NEP was the reduction of the income and economic gap among the Malays and other Bumiputeras, with that of the Chinese and Indians in Malaysia.

The NEP, therefore, had two explicitly stated goals:

• to eradicate poverty regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic activity;
• to restructure society to reflect the socio-cultural balance of the nation-state.

Abuse of our culture of respect

The following generation of Malaysians, those who call ourselves Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (or SABM), were actively taught to show respect for all our nine state royalty under the second principle of the Rukun Negara.

Therefore, I find a few recent events quite untenable by the explicit way they undermine the very agreements we have made in the Rukun Negara.

These are:

• the call by the Mufti of Kelantan about how non-Muslims can and cannot dress in their spaces and places;
• the explicit disrespect towards the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shown by the Federal Cabinet of Malaysia when they gazetted the National Security Council Bill 2015 into law after the Conference of Rulers had made a clear and obvious statement about their dissatisfaction about the Bill before the one month time frame, as per the Federal Constitution;
• Abdul Hadi Awang being a spokesman for the PAS version of Islam. Since when did he become the only interpreter of the Quran for all Malaysians, including me.

The FMT report on what the MP for Alor Setar had said is shown below:

“The importance of upholding the constitutional role and position of the Rulers, not only in letter but in spirit within the political system, cannot be understated, Alor Setar MP Gooi Hsiao Leung had said in a statement. Umno’s culture that the party comes first, before the Rulers, must be strongly condemned.”

I fully agree and this column is my protest against the disrespect shown to all the Rulers in Malaysia by the Federal Cabinet. Even though we have agreed that the “approval of royalty or the royal assent by Yang di-Pertuan Agong of a Bill is only symbolic, I vehemently object and publicly appeal to the Conference of Rulers to speak up and stop this rot.

The Rukun Negara explicitly protects, preserves and respects the Institution of the Royalty. Such disrespect for our Institution of the Royalty is another step down the slippery steep slope and is as bad as the “hudud Bill”.

Keeping quiet is not an option for me.

KJ John was Director of Industrial Policy with Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) until 1996 before he moved to the NITC at Mimos Berhad to develop the National IT Agenda.

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