UTAR Department of Soft Skills Competency (DSSC) of Kampar Campus, Department of Student Affairs (DSA) of Kampar Campus, and Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FAS) organised a webinar series titled “Celebrating 50th anniversary of Rukun Negara” from 12 October until 16 October 2020 via Zoom.

The main objective of the webinar was to embrace the tenets of Rukun Negara as the pillar of harmony and stability in building Malaysia, as well as to nurture and cultivate the Rukun Negara principles among the participants. The webinar series consisted of multiple online dialogue series, special talk and public speaking with invited speakers from primary schools, universities and lecturers from UTAR.

The first part of the series was an online dialogue session that was held on 12 October 2020. The topic of the dialogue session was “Communicating; Rukun Negara”. The speaker for this talk was Universiti Utara Malaysia School of Multimedia Technology and Communication senior lecturer Dr Mohd Khairie bin Ahmad. The other speaker was FAS Head of Public Relations Department Dr S Maartandan Suppiah. The online dialogue session was moderated by DSSC lecturer Yoon Seck Hoe. During his session, Dr Mohd Khairie said, “The Rukun Negara was introduced 50 years ago to bring stability and harmony to the people. We are fortunate to live after the independence day, after the Rukun Negara was established so that we can understand the ethnic relationships better.” Furthermore, Dr Maartandan also elaborated that the establishment of Rukun Negara was aimed to encourage the people to embrace the differences in the multicultural environment in Malaysia and promote good intercultural understanding among Malaysian to ensure the wellbeing of society and development of the nation. 

Subsequently, on 13 October 2020, another online dialogue session titled “Rukun Negara Teras Pembinaan Negara Bangsa Negara Malaysia” was delivered in Bahasa Malaysia. The dialogue session was coordinated by DSA staff Lua Zyn Lan and hosted by two speakers from FAS, namely Dr Noor Azmira binti Mohamed and Afi Roshezry bin Abu Bakar. Dr Azmira said, “The millennial generations need to be exposed to the Rukun Negara so that they can apply the principles in their daily life practices. I hope there will be a continuous effort to ensure that the principles of Rukun Negara will be used as a guide to the future generations to foster unity.” Besides, Afi also added that the history serves as a significant reminder for us to take lesson and guidance to unite people regardless of their religion, race and culture and live harmoniously in Malaysia.

Despite the nation being in the phase of Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), it did not halt the spirit of the students in the Perak state to join the “Public Speaking: Rukun Negara” activity, held on 14 October 2020. A total of six primary school students from SJKC Chenderiang, SJKC Pheng Lok, SJKT Changkat and SK Sg Lesong took part in delivering their passionate speeches for this session. The online session was conducted via ZOOM platform from 11 am till 12 pm and was hosted by Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) intern, Sukhvinderjit Singh and DSSC staff Teoh Chin Yick. 

A special talk titled “Rukun Negara and Nation-Building: Still Relevant Today?” was held on 15 October 2020. The speaker for this talk was Institute of Malaysian and International Studies Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Assoc Prof Dr Helen Ting Mu Hung and the moderator was Lua. In her talk, she highlighted that the Rukun Negara served as an ethical framework to build a united, democratic, just, liberal and progressive society. Apart from that, she also explained the two Nation-Building Policies, namely National Culture Policy and New Economic Policy, which were introduced by the government to integrate unity among Malaysian. 

As the week celebrated its final day of the 50th celebration, another talk titled “Culture and Representation of Rukun Negara” was conducted on 16 October 2020. The main speaker for the talk was FAS academic Dr Tan Huey Pyng and the moderator was DSSC Yoon Seck Hoe. Dr Tan started her talk by sharing the aftermath of the riot that had caused the bad history in the country. In order to curb this issue, the five principles of Rukun Negara with references of the federal constitutions and five important objectives were created as a guide for the nation to foster unity, form blending ways of life, and create just, fair and progressive society. She also advised the participants to play their part in adopting the Rukun Negara as life principles, rules of actions and conduct and to identify, understand, trust and appreciate it.

UTAR DSSC of Kampar Campus played an important role in participating in the 50th Celebration of Rukun Negara. The event allowed the speakers to share their thoughts, ideas and also background information to the participants of the talks. It is an important element for all the students, staff and community to adhere to rather than just following the Rukun Negara to maintain the harmonious environment in Malaysia that consists of multiple races and cultures. Our flag is not just some political points of view. Rather, the flag is a symbol of our national unity.