Malaysia Moments - Merdeka

I always wondered why Tourism Malaysia flaunted the tagline Malaysia truly Asia. And as if that phrase wasn’t puzzling enough Visit Malaysia 2014 came up with the catch phrase of One Malaysia. Lucky for me, I got the meaning of both the taglines on a national platter during this year’s Hari Merdeka celebrations, where I along with two other Indian bloggers (Manjulia and Ragini) was given a chance to be a part of this ethereal experience courtesy Tourism Malaysia and Blogadda.

Malaysia celebrates its Independence Day on the 31st of August with the spirit of oneness every year. Amidst the color galore and the catchy beats of national songs, Merdeka not only flaunts the national might but also people and pride of the Malay Kingdom. Malaysia is the house to a numerous ethnic groups from south East Asia, and has a large nationally recognized population of Chinese and Indians along with the local Malays, and all of them merrily marched in the parade as one during Merdeka.

Malaysia is also very proud of its technological achievements but at the same time they haven’t forgotten the Mud that made them – Tin. The national day parade hosted at the Merdeka Square, also had the jubilant faces of local companies along with the numerous army battalions. 

This year’s Merdeka (the 57th Merdeka) theme was Malaysia, Di Sini Lahirnya Sebuah Cinta (Malaysia, Here Where Love Begins) and the adorable national Mascots Upin and Ipin along with the performing kids spread the message to one and all present at the square - from 6:30 AM (That is when the celebrations began). The arrivals of the His Majesty - The Supreme Head of Malaysia, the ministers, the embassy officials and the cheer from the crowd for them showed the tremendous support people have for their government.

Tourism is one of the most prominent industries of Malaysia and the treatment every guest of Tourism Malaysia received silently speaks of their dedication to people all around the world. We the Tourism Malaysia FAM participants were given special designated seats amongst the elite from Sabah, Sarawak and other parts of the country and FAM participants from Thailand, Georgia, Japan, Indonesia, UAE and Myanmar. Having seen India’s Independence Day and Republic Day celebration, this seemed to be less extravagant but surely was a total ‘People’s day’.

This track got looped for quite sometime and made Merdeka 57 the most memorable day of my first ever trip to the Malay Kingdom.