To my dearly beloved country,

Soon you’ll be turning sixty two,

Your children of all religions and races,

Will come out to celebrate with you.

We shall remember your struggles,

And how you fought hard to be free,

No more a colony of any kingdom,

Your people’s unity was the key.

In August, the year nineteen fifty seven,

You surely stood tall and proud,

From all across the ‘Padang’

The call of ‘Merdeka’ rang loud!

Decades have since rolled past,

Leaders have come and gone,

A rising, developing nation,

Our allegiance, we have sworn.

Malaysia, a beautiful gracious lady,

A warrior, deep down in your soul,

You are our home, our inheritance,

A land of the brave and the bold.

We shall sing of your goodness,

‘Negaraku’, the anthem in our hearts,

We live by the National Principles,

Your vision, we will always be a part.

No matter what race we come from,

Or what languages we can speak,

Or who is it, our soul we worship,

Or which path in life we seek.

Like in any family on this earth,

There’ll be a black sheep or maybe two,

Rebellious, dysfunctional, naughty ones,

Who may bite more than they can chew.

But we never give up on family,

We work through all its ups and downs,

Let’s ‘berganding tangan’ together,

May lovingkindness be our high renown.

No matter who sits on your throne today,

Or which powers are voted in to rule,

We must do our part to live in peace,

We so love you, our precious jewel.

SELAMAT HARI MERDEKA, MALAYSIA

*** Header image by Deva Darshan on Unsplash.

Hey guys, we’re looking for more short stories, poems and essays. If you’ve got some and aren’t shy to share it with the world, please drop us an email at editors@eksentrika.com. Oh, do read our Submission Guidelines first. Here’s another post you might enjoy. 

POETRY | Autumn by Juliana Heng