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Cover: Sultan Abdullah Muhammad Shah II, public-domain portrait via Wikimedia Commons; Sultan Idris Murshidul Azzam Shah and Raja Chulan in London, by Sir Benjamin Stone, from Sir Benjamin Stone's Pictures (1906), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons / Internet Archive; Proclamation of Independence, Stadium Merdeka, 31 August 1957, Arkib Negara Malaysia, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; background: the Sultan's palace, Kuala Kangsar, c. 1910, by C.J. Kleingrothe, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (KITLV collection), darkened.
Before it belonged to the whole nation, the melody of Negaraku was the royal anthem of Perak. Before that, by most accounts, it was a popular song called Terang Bulan. In 1957, after 514 competition entries and a piece by Benjamin Britten were turned down, the new country chose a tune from Perak.
You have sung it hundreds of times.
At school assembly on Monday mornings. On sports day. At the stadium, before the national team kicks off. On television, when a Malaysian athlete stands on the podium and our flag goes up.
"Negaraku, tanah tumpahnya darahku…"
But before that melody belonged to the whole country, it belonged to one state: Perak, whose capital today is Ipoh.
In our last story, Ceylyn Tay of Canning Dim Sum took one Ipoh family's pau know-how out to the world. Today's story is about something from Perak that travelled even further, and comes back to us every time Malaysia's flag is raised.
Where Did Negaraku Come From?
Negaraku ("My Country") is the national anthem of Malaysia.
Its melody is the melody of Allah Lanjutkan Usia Sultan ("God Lengthen the Sultan's Life"), the state anthem of Perak. Perak's anthem still uses the same tune today.
Long before 1957, that melody was also known up and down Malaya as a popular song: Terang Bulan, "Bright Moon".
So where did the tune itself come from? This is where the story gets interesting, because there is more than one answer.
A Sultan in Exile
The story most often told begins with Sultan Abdullah Muhammad Shah II, the 26th Sultan of Perak.
Earlier in this series, at the Birch Memorial Clock Tower, we told you about J.W.W. Birch, the first British Resident of Perak, who was killed at Pasir Salak in 1875.
The British accused Sultan Abdullah of being part of the plot. On 30 March 1877, he was removed from the throne. He was then sent into exile in the Seychelles, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of East Africa.
He stayed there for about 17 years.
In 1894 he was pardoned, but he was not allowed to go home to Perak straight away. He lived in Singapore and Penang. Only late in life was he allowed back to Kuala Kangsar, where he died on 22 December 1922.
On Mahé, the main island of the Seychelles, a French tune called "La Rosalie" is said to have been popular in those years. It is often credited to the French songwriter Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780–1857). Malaysia's official government portal describes Terang Bulan as Sultan Abdullah's favourite song from his time in exile.
The Whistle in London
Then comes the best-known part of the story.
Sultan Idris Murshidul Azzam Shah, who ruled Perak from 1887 to 1916, travelled to London.
As the Perak royal account tells it, an official asked the Sultan's aide for the music of the Perak state anthem, so that a band could play it when the Sultan arrived at official functions.
There was one problem. Perak did not have a state anthem.
Rather than say so, the aide, Raja Mansur, explained that he had forgotten to bring the music. But if someone could write down the notes, he said, he could whistle it.
He whistled a tune that was hugely popular in Perak at the time. That tune was Terang Bulan. From that day, it was Perak's anthem.
If the Perak royal account is right, the aide, Raja Ngah Mansor, was a son of the exiled Sultan Abdullah. So a tune linked to the father's exile reached London through the son.
The accounts do not all agree on the details. The Perak royal account dates the trip to 1888. Others place it at the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902, which Sultan Idris attended in London on behalf of the rulers of the Federated Malay States. One version says the aide hummed rather than whistled, and names him as Raja Kamaralzaman ibni Raja Mansur.
On our cover, Sultan Idris stands outside the Houses of Parliament in London beside Raja Chulan, another son of Sultan Abdullah, photographed by Sir Benjamin Stone. According to the Perak royal portal, Raja Chulan visited his father in the Seychelles several times.
Another Theory
Not everyone agrees the tune came straight from the Seychelles.
Shazlan Hamzah, the author of a book on Negaraku, believes it was brought by an Indonesian bangsawan, or opera, troupe that performed in Singapore in the early 20th century.
Either way, the melody travelled. After the Second World War, it reached British dance halls as "Mamula Moon", a slow foxtrot with English words by Phil Park. Geraldo and His Orchestra recorded it for Parlophone in 1947, and the record's label calls it a "Traditional Malayan Love Song". The London-based Felix Mendelssohn and His Hawaiian Serenaders recorded their own version, released by Columbia in 1948. Even earlier, the 1937 hit film Terang Boelan, made in the Dutch East Indies, had carried the song to cinema audiences across the region, including Malaya. By the 1950s, it was a tune you might hear at a party or in a cabaret as easily as at a royal ceremony. That changed in 1957. Once the tune became Malaya's national anthem, Indonesia is said to have stopped Terang Bulan being sung and broadcast there, out of respect for its new neighbour.
1957: A New Country Without a Song
By 1957, independence was set for 31 August.
Perak and other Malay states had their own royal anthems, but there was no national one. Tunku Abdul Rahman, then Chief Minister, led a committee to choose it.
First, a worldwide competition. It drew 514 entries. None was chosen.
Next, the committee invited well-known composers, among them Britain's Benjamin Britten and William Walton, the American opera composer Gian Carlo Menotti, and Zubir Said, who later wrote Singapore's anthem, Majulah Singapura. None of the invitations produced an anthem.
Britten did write one, for a fee of 100 guineas. A few weeks later, the government sent it back and asked him to make it sound more Malayan, along with tapes of local folk music. He tried again. It was still rejected. Britten himself called it "a curious & I'm afraid rather unsuccessful job". It has reportedly been played in public only once, at a London concert in 2007 marking 50 years of independence.
Then Tunku Abdul Rahman made a suggestion: why not use the Perak state anthem?
On 5 August 1957, just 26 days before Merdeka, the committee chose the Perak anthem's melody. New words were written by a committee led by the Tunku, with the approval of the Malay Rulers. The musical score was prepared by Alfonso Soliano, D.S.P. Croff, Captain Lenthall and A.T. Reed.
Midnight, 31 August 1957
Just after midnight on 31 August 1957, at the Selangor Club ground in Kuala Lumpur, the Union Jack came down and the flag of the Federation of Malaya went up. Negaraku was played for the first time.
That morning, at Stadium Merdeka, Tunku Abdul Rahman read the Proclamation of Independence and cried "Merdeka!" seven times with the crowd. As the new flag was raised, Negaraku was played again.
In 1963, when Malaysia was formed, Negaraku carried on as the national anthem. Since 1968, it has been protected by the National Anthem Act.
Two Attempts to Change It
In 1992, Negaraku was given a faster, march-like tempo. Many Malaysians did not like it, and some compared it to circus music.
In 2003, a plan to rename it "Malaysiaku" was dropped after a public outcry. The anthem was rearranged again by composer Wah Idris, closer to the original, slower pace.
The melody itself, the tune from Perak, has stayed the same.
The Honest Part: Who Wrote It?
Ask "Who composed Negaraku?" and you will not get one name.
A French songwriter in the 1800s? An exiled Sultan of Perak who loved the tune? A quick-thinking aide in London? A travelling opera troupe? Each has been given the credit by someone. Even the words have been debated: the official account credits the Tunku's committee, while some credit the songwriter Saiful Bahri.
What the sources do agree on is the most important part. The melody of Malaysia's national anthem was Perak's state anthem first.
What Negaraku Teaches Our Children
First lesson: think on your feet.
Raja Mansur, by the royal account, turned an embarrassing moment into a state anthem, and in time, a national one.
Second lesson: the answer may be close to home.
A new country asked the world for a song. It received 514 entries and approached famous composers. In the end, the answer was already being sung in Perak.
Third lesson: good things travel.
A tune heard on islands off Africa, whistled in London, sung in Perak, and now played wherever Malaysia competes.
Fourth lesson: learn to hold more than one version.
History often comes with different accounts. A good student asks who is telling the story, and checks more than one source.
Fifth lesson: it belongs to all of us.
Negaraku began in one state, with one royal family. Today it belongs to every Malaysian, of every race and religion.
The Next Time You Stand for It
So the next time you stand for Negaraku, at assembly, at a stadium or in front of the television, remember where it began.
A Sultan far from home.
An aide in London with a tune in his head.
A song from Perak.
And a new nation that, after 514 entries and a piece by Benjamin Britten, chose a melody it already knew.
From Perak to the nation.
Where do you remember singing Negaraku most: school assembly, sports day or the stadium? Tell us
This story is part of Ipoh Connections, our City of Millionaires heritage series. At EdQuest International School in Ipoh, we believe history, character and critical thinking are best learned through real stories, including the stories of our own city.
Stories in this series are shared for informational and educational purposes. Where accounts differ, we say so. We respect all races, religions and cultures, and we do not represent or endorse any political party or movement.
