AUGUST is just around the corner, which means the Jalur Gemilang will make its annual appearance in the shopping centres, taxis, and offices to usher in Hari Merdeka this month and Malaysia Day on September 16.

It was during Najib Razak’s reign that Malaysia Day was finally recognised for its significance in our country’s history.

It was on September 16, 1963, that the entity we know and love as Malaysia came into being.

Here are my favourite nostalgic “patriotic” songs that take me back to the days of innocence when Malaysia only celebrated Hari Merdeka.

‘Tanggal 31’ (1957) - Ahmad C.B.

Bangsawan artist Ahmad C.B. (born in Medan, Jakarta), is the composer and original singer of the song, a fact many people are unaware of.  

He wrote the song to celebrate Malayan independence. The lore of how the song came to be is emblematic of the maritime roots of our Nusantara region: upon hearing news of the impending Malayan independence, he wrote the song and hopped onto a boat and crossed the Singapore Strait from Batam Island (where he was on a bangsawan tour) to record it in Singapore.

It is also interesting to note that one of the suggested reasons why he never utters the word “Ogos” (the month of August in Malay) and instead mentions it as “bulan lapan” (the eighth month) is because being Indonesian, he would have callued it “Agustus” instead. The small detail shows how adept artists were at language back then.

‘Tanggal 31’ (1982) - Sudirman

This is the upbeat version I grew up singing along to as a kid.

Sudirman was an artist unlike any other in my book - P. Ramlee included - as he represented more than just being a Malaysian artist: he was a cultural ambassador whose creative choices - his songs, his television shows, concerts (especially his legendary free 1986 concert in Jalan Chow Kit), his outfits, his persona, his film roles - often tied closely to his utopian vision of the nationhood of Malaysia.

While some may argue that this song is not inclusive as it does not consider Sarawak and Sabah, the original songs (see above) were written solely to celebrate Malayan independence.

With the benefit of hindsight, one wonders if Sudirman ever did pitch a song to fit Malaysia Day and was rejected because the date was yet to be recognised.

‘Saya Anak Malaysia’ (1986) - dR Sam

Just a few years after Sudirman’s reinterpretation of Ahmad C.B.‘s song, dR Sam – a busker turned recording artist – carried on the spirit of nationhood with more contemporary songwriting and, more importantly, more information sprinkled in the lyrics.

The attribution of its citizens outside of the oft-accepted colonial categories of “Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Others,” he countered it with the extended inclusivity of “Melayu, Cina, Iban, India…Kadazan, Portugis pun ada” (“Malay, Chinese, Iban, Indian…Kadazan, Portuguese also”) which, while simple and may not include Orang Asli and other minority groups, was a step up from the narrative then.

The timelessness of this song is evident in its recent remakes, which I discovered my six-year-old kids singing after learning it in kindergarten (albeit a more contemporary version sans dR Sam).

To me, this song was ahead of its time, warming us up for our eventual acknowledgement and celebration of Malaysia Day decades later.

‘Setia’ (1988) - Francissca Peter

Originally published in 1988, this live RTM version (probably from the early 1990s) featuring a saxophone solo by Jimmy Sax, the great Francissca Peter‘s heartfelt delivery, and the children’s choir always got my attention when life was simpler since we only had three television stations and the Internet had yet to exist.

While this is a beautiful song in the patriotic genre, I have mixed feelings about it since the lyrics were co-written by renowned lyricist Habsah Hassan and then-information minister, the late Mohamed Rahmat – the man responsible for cutting rock band Search and Wing’s long locks on live television in 1992. - July 28, 2023.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.