PUTRAJAYA, Aug 25 — For the first time ever, the recital of the pledge and Rukun Negara at the National Day celebrations this year will also be accompanied by a special team using sign language.
The presentation (sign language) to accompany the oral recitation of the pledge and Rukun Negara will be featured by 36 students from the Teachers Education Institute’s (IPG) Special Science Campus in Cheras during the 2023 National Day celebrations at Dataran Putrajaya on August 31.
This year, the oral pledge will be read by 40 students of the National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) and led by Muhammad Haikal Roslan, where the group will stand in front of the Special Science Campus IPG team which will deliver the preamble of the pledge in sign language.
The lecturer and trainer for the IPG Special Science Campus, Saiful Azam Khoo Abdullah’s pledge-recital team said that introducing sign language at large-scale ceremonies such as the National Day celebration opens up space to expand the language to regular society.
“It indirectly opens the community’s minds to learn sign language at the same time as giving the disabled (OKU) an opportunity to know and deepen the message of the pledge later,” he told Bernama during a review of preparations for the 2023 National Day at Dataran Putrajaya earlier today.
According to the Special Education (hearing impairment) lecturer, intensive training has been carried out for the past two months. His team is determined to deliver their best at the National Day celebration.
IPG Special Education (hearing impaired) student Nur Iman Sorfina Mohd Iza Ney, 21, said she felt lucky to be chosen by her lecturer as a team member to deliver the pledge in sign language and thought the disabled should not be left out.
“With this, the disabled can also feel that they are the same as ordinary people and do not feel marginalised,” she said.
Meanwhile, extreme sports coach and UPNM pledge recitation supervisor Lt Col Mustapha Omar said this is the second time UPNM has been given the responsibility to recite the National Day pledge after 2016.
With a duration of three minutes and 18 seconds, the UPNM pledge readers consisting of Defence Fitness Academy students and cadet officers of the Reserve Officers Training Unit (Palapes) will wear multi-racial attire.
Muhammad Danial Yusofhariyono of Tawau, Sabah said he was proud to be honoured as one of the pledge readers from UPNM for an important national ceremony and feels the chance was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“We are rehearsing as best we can. So far the coordination between UPNM and IPG students has been quite good and there have been no problems in our training,” said the second-year student in Bachelor of International Relations, Diplomacy, and Security.
The highlight of the 2023 National Day celebration, which is themed Tekad Perpaduan, Penuhi Harapan (Unity Determined to Fulfill Hope) will take place in Putrajaya on August 31.
This is the fifth time the National Day celebration has been held in Putrajaya after 2003, 2005, 2018, and 2019.
— Bernama
