NOT EVERYONE UPSET WITH HATTAN'S NEGARAKU RENDITION

PETALING JAYA: Singer Hattan stirred a hornet’s nest with his rendition of the national anthem before a capacity crowd at the Malaysia Cup finals on Saturday but not everyone is feeling stung by it.

“I don’t think he meant to degrade the Negaraku,” said Deputy Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin.

“We should take it in a positive light. He has made us realise that we have to respect our national anthem,” he said in response to the furore kicked up by MP for Sri Gading Datuk Mohamed Aziz.

The MP had slammed Hattan for allegedly jazzing up the Negaraku, a move he considered tantamount to insulting the national anthem.

Zainuddin said, however, that the national anthem should be sung “the right way, the way it was gazetted.”

Freddie Fernandez, president of the Malaysian artistes association, Karyawan, said singers should be allowed to interpret songs their own way.

“I don’t think Hattan meant to be disrespectful. As singers, we express songs using our own interpretation. I think Hattan was only doing that,” he said.

When it was first adopted as the country’s national anthem, the Negaraku had a slow beat.

This was revised to a marching beat in 1993 and then given a different feel – “in between the slow and fast rhythm” by renowned composer and arranger Datuk Wah Idris in 2003.

Wah said singers should just stick to the “rightful version.”

“As this is our national anthem, a singer should just stick to it. It has to be sung with respect.”

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim said he would watch a recording of the event “to determine whether there was an act of belittling the Negaraku.”

“I am getting the footage today (Tuesday) and I will view it with an open mind,” he said.

In the Dewan Rakyat, Mohamed Aziz requested RTM broadcast the segment of the Malaysia Cup final which showed Hattan singing the national anthem “so that I could be proven correct.”

If Hattan was in the wrong, Rais should take the necessary action against the singer, he said.

Hattan has since refuted the accusation that he had jazzed up the Negaraku during the soccer event, saying that he had sung the national anthem that way at many other functions, and no one had made an issue of it before.

BY ZIEMAN - PUBLISHED 16/2/2005