KUALA LUMPUR: NGOs and corporate entities should create more discourses to generate interest among youths, and nurture their interest and understanding of the spirit behind Malaysia’s formation.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi said this is important, and such discourses should not be confined to special festivities or occasions only.
“I highly encourage NGOs and the corporate sector to organise programmes that will allow the younger generation to listen to our historical background and gain knowledge from it.
“Youths should be inculcated (with this knowledge), given that Malaysia is a diverse nation. Essentially, we should celebrate our diversity,” he said after attending the Merdeka Special: Stories from our Founding Fathers programme at Taman Tugu here yesterday.
Nanta, who is also Kapit MP, attended the talk to speak of his relationship with his grandfather, Tun Jugah Barieng, who was the paramount chief of the Iban community for more than 55 years and played a key role in the formation of Malaysia in 1963.
Nanta related that Jugah was known for the saying “Anang Malaysia sabaka tebu, manis di pun, tabar di ujung”, which in Iban means “Let Malaysia not be like a sugarcane, sweet in the beginning and lesser towards the end”.
According to him, the saying denoted his grandfather’s hope that Malaysians be united despite their ethnic and cultural diversity.
Nanta was one of four speakers at the event.
Tengku Rozani Tengku Ahmad Nerang spoke of her grandfather, Malaysia’s founding father and first prime minister, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj.
Rozani recounted that her grandfather had a nickname for every person he was fond of, and called her “Puteri”, meaning princess.
Meanwhile, Deva Kunjari Sambanthan shared a time when her father Tun Veerasamy Thiruyana Sambanthan, an illustrious politician and a champion of the poor, would regale her with bedtime stories and his snappy sense of humour.
According to Deva, her father said: “We may be poor, but we are not cowards”.
She also revealed that the lion dance, which was banned following the May 13 riots, was revived by him.
Earlier, Mohamed Tarmizi Tun Dr Ismail had noted that his father, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, had often put the family last and gave his all to the nation when he was the second deputy prime minister.
United Malacca Berhad chairman Datin Paduka Tan Siok Choo pointed to the rich Peranakan heritage and belief that embodied MCA founder Tun Tan Cheng Lock.
The “Friends of Taman Tugu” event was held at the Taman Tugu Nursery, where its People Library concept treats speakers who share their expertise on a given topic as human “books”. The packed crowd of visitors listened to history told by experts, who shared their knowledge of the origins of Kuala Lumpur, starting from as early as the 1800s.
