"I Have a Dream" for Malaysia

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if Malaysia is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Selangor. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Sabah. Let freedom ring from the heightening plateaus of Kelantan! Let freedom ring from the jungle-clad mountains of Sarawak! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of Perak!

But not only that; let freedom ring from the marble halls of Putrajaya! Let freedom ring from Gunong Tahan of Pahang! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Kedah. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, brown men and black men, Muslims and Christians, Hindus and Buddhists, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"




Closing paragraphs of “I Have a Dream” speech modified to suit Malaysia.
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968