KOTA SAMARAHAN: Minister of Tourism, Art, Culture, Youth and Sports, Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah officiated at the launching of the Samarah Divisional level “Negaraku Sehati Sejiwa” programme at Summer Shopping Mall here, yesterday with more than 300 people present.
In his speech Karim advised the people to not simply trust the opposition which always discouraged the people to celebrate the Independence Day.
“When the celebration date is around the corner, the opposition will always take the opportunity to discourage the people to celebrate by saying the 31 August is not our Independence Day,
“They always say that the date to celebrate Independence Day is on 16 September,” said Karim.
Karim also explained that 31August is the Independence date for Malaya, while 16 September is the reformation of Malaysia by Malaya, Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore, before Singapore decided to pull out from Malaysia.
“Malaysia then decided to choose one date which is 31 August as the date to celebrate the National Independence Day. However, we also celebrate the formation of Malaysia on 16 September,” he explained.
Karim also reminded the opposition to study the date of Independence Day of the United State of America which choose 4 July and Indonesia on 17 August, although there are a lot of states in both countries which gained their independence on different dates.
