Few people know about the origins of this beautiful patriotic song

The Federal House in KL, originally built for a post office but converted to Radio Malaya’s headquarters, was a flurry of activity in 1960, since the nation achieved independence a few years prior. But Ahmad Merican (now Tan Sri) and (the late) Wan Ahmad Kamal, his young assistant, were under the cosh to contribute a patriotic song.

The two-man music unit of Radio Malaya, upon the behest of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the country’s first Prime Minister, was succeeding in meeting his demands of assembling a collection of nationalist tunes. While some of the team’s most celebrated musicians, the likes of Jimmy Boyle, Alfonso Soliano and Tony Fonseka, had made their contributions, Ahmad and Wan, as Radio Malaya administrators, felt that they, too, could contribute a tune.

And in one sitting, Ahmad churned out the music and melody for one of the most enduring patriotic pieces Malaysia has come to know – Tanah Pusaka. And according to him, across a few days, Wan wrote the original words and (the late) Tan Sri Dol Ramli, then Head of the Malay Services Division (and later, the first Malaysian director-general of Radio Malaya), “polished” the lyrics to the unforgettable tune.

(from left) Ahmad, Dol and Yusof Ahmad of Radio Singapura rehearse at Boston University in 1958 for the landmark Malayan music presentation on the Music USA radio programme, which was broadcast via the Voice of America from the John Hancock Hall that same year.

“Sitting in our little office on the sixth floor, there were four of us. Wan sat next to me, Alfonso in front and (music copyist) Fong next to him. As I kept playing my guitar and getting some Malay melodies on it, Alfonso (who transcribed the music, given his position as bandleader of Orkes Radio Malaya then) encouraged me to see it through,” Ahmad related in a recent interview.

The setting for the birth of one of the most endearing Malaysian songs hardly seems special, but Tanah Pusaka has transcended space and time, and found a foothold in the hearts of Malaysians in these testing times.

The song, first documented in a Radio Malaya songbook from 1961 and recorded internationally by Indonesian-born Dutch singer, Sandra Reemer in 1962, has also gained traction with the numerous renditions of it – everyone from the late Datuk Sudirman Hj Arshad in the 1980s, to vocal troupe Super ReD more recently, have taken a stab at it.

But for reasons lost in the mists of time, and the dearth of proper documentation during those early years, the credit for the song seems to have been inconsistent since its composition.

However, the families involved have come to the general consensus, that while Dol didn’t write the words to it, he certainly had a hand in fine-tuning it, given his expertise in language, love for music and knack for writing lyrics. In fact, he was the man behind the very memorable Bahasa Jiwa Bangsa.

“I don’t recall my dad specifically mentioning writing the lyrics to Tanah Pusaka, but I did hear in a talk show on the radio after his demise that he had a hand in the lyrics of the song,” revealed Dol’s son, Dzulkifli.

Tan Sri Dol Ramli (right), head of the Malay Services Division, greets American Ambassador to Malaya Homer Byington in 1958, as Tan Sri Ahmad Merican looks on.

His brother Aziz, concurred: “I recall a short conversation I had with dad many years ago, when I told him I like Tanah Pusaka. And if I’m not wrong, he credited the song to Ahmad Merican, although he could have changed some of the lyrics to better reflect the patriotic sentiments prevailing at that time.”

Wan’s widow, glorious singing siren Asiah Tuah from the 1960s, recalls how when she married him in 1961, he told her about having written the lyrics for Tanah Pusaka. “He had talked about it a few times, and was disheartened his name was sometimes omitted,” she explained.

Wan, also a musician and prolific lyricist in his lifetime, wrote the lyrics to Tanah Pusaka when he was in his early 20s.

Wan Ahmad Kamal is the lyricist for Tanah Pusaka, with refinements to the words provided by Dol.

Given the reputations of the people involved and their many contributions to the Malaysian music and entertainment industries, it hardly seems any one of them was desperate for credit, though, for historical purposes, the record needs to be set straight.

Ahmad, on his part, has steadfastly stayed to his version of events, which isn’t surprising since he shared an office space with his friends and colleagues.

“Composing Tanah Pusaka was all in a day’s work for us at that time. After I composed the music, with Alfonso transcribing the music and Wan writing the words, Dol made improvements to the lyrics. Honestly, it was just another song to the many that were produced for national transmission by Radio Malaya,” he concluded.

This Merdeka Day, along with our national anthem Negaraku, there probably isn’t another song that could be better celebrated in the name of nationalism and unity.

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Getting copyrighting right in Malaysia

Now that the families involved have come together to set the record straight, Tanah Pusaka is finally getting its crediting right. Tan Sri Ahmad Merican is the recognised composer of the music and Wan Ahmad Kamal the lyricist for the tune.

“MACP (Music Authors Copyright Protection) has been crediting Tan Sri Ahmad Merican as the composer of the music. However, it has only recently come to light that Wan Ahmad Kamal is the lyricist for the song. Arrangements are thus being made to ensure that his widow gets her fair share of the royalties derived from the public performance of the song,” revealed Datuk Freddie Fernandez, Malaysian Artistes’ Association (Karyawan) president and founding chairman of MACP.

Copyrighting has been a long-standing issue in Malaysia – many artistes have failed to realise what is owed to them.

According to Fernandez, copyright is automatically bestowed on the person who originates a particular work. Problems only occur when more than one person claims to have originated the same work. When this happens, the onus is on both parties to prove that they originated the work.

“There is an organisation called the Intellectual Property Organisation of Malaysia, under the Ministry of Domestic Trade or MyIpo, where you can register a copyrighted work. Once you have done so, this serves as proof of copyright, and anyone doing so later, will not be able to prove that they originated the work,” he explained.

He added that for songs recorded a long time back, the best option would be to try and get witnesses who were present at the recording, like the music arranger, sound engineer, producer and so on.

Source : Star2.com