He described members of the National Silat Seni Gayong Association as the country’s defenders who were willing to make sacrifices, including giving up their lives, to protect the nation.
“I consider the silat gayong association as one of three important groups in our line of defence, who can protect the country’s sovereignty and security. The first two are members of the armed forces and the police.
“I am sure all of you will be ready to fight against those who wish to challenge our country’s peace, security and sovereignty,” he told some 3,000 members of the silat group during a national gathering of the association here yesterday.
Najib said the members were respected for their discipline, mental confidence and loyalty to the country.
“We hope the younger generation will learn the discipline of seni silat gayong, which can inculcate good morals among the youths,” he added.
Najib said a nation’s strength in the 21st century did not lie solely in military strength but in political power too.
“The sharpest weapon for the future is not the keris but political power.
“You need to be excellent in all aspects, not only martial arts and skills.
“Use your silat knowledge as a means to develop yourselves into strong and successful individuals. The Japanese adhered to the bushido spirit after World War II to become an economically-powerful country,” he said.
Najib also said he would seriously look into a proposal to construct a Malaysian seni silat gayong building at Kampung Datuk Keramat here.
Later, during a special ceremony, the Prime Minister was bestowed with the Sandang Mahkota Agong Seri Bintang Pelangi award by association president Datuk Adiwijaya Abdullah.
The award is bestowed on Malay rulers and state leaders to symbolise the loyalty of the association’s members to the country’s leadership.
By ZULKIFLI ABD RAHMAN
Sourced from http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/3/nation/7152981&sec=nation
7 comments:
Salam..interesting indeed. So why only commend the Gayong group? Has the PM been part of SSGM? I tend to disagree with the statement that the sharpest weapon for the future is political power. I believe the real sharpest weapon is Taqwah, i.e real awareness of God. If you fear Him, He will teach you. When He teaches you, then you'll be counted amongst the wise. Just my 2pence from a Cape malay.. :-)
Salam Abang Em,
Ahhhhh... you'd need to be indoctrinated into Malaysian politics before you'd begin to understand the statements made :)
To answer your questions: The PM's late father was inducted into Gayong by virtue of being a Malay leader.
And because Gayong folk have had strong connections to UMNO, the current PM has often been present when Gayong leaders came to meet his father at home to discuss Malay political issues.
As for the second, I shall disagree with you on semantics (just because it's fun to). I believe the sharpest weapon is du'a!
Just my 2 sen from a displaced Arab-Achehnese-Indian-Persian-Pattani-Malay.
:P
Wassalam,
Ok, your opinion works as well. So are there any other Silat groups who are politicaly motivated? By the way, your geaneology sounds like a poem haha.. Ive got one we use in cape town, goes like...'chinese-japanese-snot-nese, moneyplease' haha..
Salam Abang Em,
Most silat groups are not politically motivated in the sense that they are looking for political power or intend to be folded into government or parties.
However, there are and have been silat organisations that have been affiliated to certain political parties by way of recognising and awarding the leaders of such parties.
By record, we've seen this trend with Silat Seni Gayong Malaysia with the Perak Sultan Idris Shah Ibni Sultan Alang Iskanda, and UMNO: Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and now his son Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
We've also seen this with Silat Seni Pusaka Gayong Malaysia awarding Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
However, whenever there is an election on, the main silat that gets involved in helping out UMNO and Barisan Nasional is often Seni Silat Lincah, by virtue of its upper leadership being staunch UMNO leaders as well.
Wassalam,
W'salam.. Does this mean that these silat groups wil be financially aided by government? It makes sense for political parties to highlite the BIG silat organisations...
Salam Abang Em,
Not really. All silat bodies, when properly registered, are NGOs, and all NGOs are provided an allocation for activities from funds at the relevant ministries.
If you're registered under the Sports Act, you can source funding from the Youth and Sports Ministry and if you're under the Heritage Act, you can source from the Heritage and Communications ministry.
Aside from that, they can also source from private institutions. It's especially difficult to get money directly from the government since, they are controlled by the Registrar of Associations or the acts they register under to provide transparency of their finances or risk getting deregistered.
And yes, it does make sense to highlight the big ones, but there is also those big groups like Silat Cekak and Seni Gayung Fatani, Seni Gayung Laksamana, Silat Sendeng Malaysia, etc which have comparable numbers but are decidedly, if not consciously, apolitical. They don't get their time in the media unless they work for it.
Wassalam,
Slm.. Trimkasih for your insight... I wish funding for silat in south africa was as simplified.
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