And you thought the torture ended in school...

So how many of you actually know the complete lyrics to Negaraku? If you know ALL of it, I think you deserve waaaay more than a pat on the back. The Malaysian government excels at creating half-baked, inane ideas. Guess what they've come up with now?

They're going to start playing Negaraku at cinemas now, after the trailers and before the movie starts -- and for what reason? To improve patriotism! Isn't that amazing? My question is, who's big idea is it that singing the damn national anthem is equated to patriotism? I for one don't know the lyrics to the song, but I love Malaysia, how does that rate me on the patriotism scale?

Apparently, according to the article in The Star, cinema-goers aren't required to stand while the song is being played, but the silly ministers dream of a unified group of people standing upright, belting out "Negaraku, tanah tumpahnya darahku!" at the top of their lungs. Sigh.

Oh by the way, someone should probably tell the fantastic person who came up with the idea that we stole our national anthem from an Indonesian song.

Let's see how far this circus goes, all those in Malaysia -- the next time you go to a cinema and Negaraku plays, take a photo/video and send it to me. I can't wait to see how people will react to this!

Here's the Negaraku that I remember singing in school:
Neeeeegaaaaaraaaaakuuuu
Tanah tumpahnya darahku
Raaaaaakyaaaaat hiiiiduuuuuup
Beeeeeersaaaaaatu dan maaaaaaaaaju
Raaaaaaaahmat bahgia
Tuhaaaaaaaaan kukurrrrrrrrniakan
Raaaaaja (pretends to know lyrics) la la la seeeeelamat beeeeeeertakhtaaaaaa

Here's the real lyrics to the song:
Negaraku
Tanah tumpahnya darahku
Rakyat hidup bersatu dan maju
Rahmat bahagia, Tuhan kurniakan
Raja kita selamat bertakhta
Rahmat bahagia, Tuhan kurniakan
Raja kita selamat bertakhta

Apparently, forcing 13 to 17-year-olds to sing the national anthem at 7:30am when everyone's hungry and half awake is a very ineffective way to instill patriotism. I hated morning assemblies and I can name you a million others like me.

Here's the funny thing about our national anthem. I did a Wikipedia search and here's the gist of the history. Negaraku used to be "Terang Bulan" or "Bright Moon," Perak's state anthem, which was picked up in Seychelles. The Sultan of Perak was exiled to an island in Seychelles, heard the song (originally a French melody by a Parisian lyricist) and it became the state anthem. An Indonesian bangsawan/opera made the song famous, brought it to Singapore and later had the lyrics changed and became Malaysia's national anthem! By the way, I think according to the Malaysian constitution it's illegal to use Negaraku as a party tune. Hehe...imagine having Oakenfold do a Negaraku mix.

Read the complete article at The Star Online.