Malaysia parties for its 50 years as a nation

MALAYSIA: Malaysia went into party mode Friday to celebrate its 50 years as a nation, staging an extravagant display of pomp and ceremony and appealing for racial unity.

Fighter jets performed aerial acrobatics overhead and helicopters billowed out the colours of the flag as 24,000 people, ranging from school children to war veterans, began to parade past Independence Square.

Performers dressed in the national colours of blue, yellow, white and red led the crowds singing as the parade snaked past local and foreign dignitaries gathered on Independence Square, including Britain’s Prince Andrew.

The celebration of independence from Britain, however, comes at a time when Malaysia has been increasingly questioning its identity, a theme picked up by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

At a midnight flag-raising ceremony he urged people to be patriotic about Malaysia, which vaunts its multicultural status.

“We always take care of all the races. We respect each other,” he told the cheering crowds.

“We must take care of our unity and we must be ready to destroy any threat which may effect our unity.”

Car horns hooted through the night in the capital Kuala Lumpur along with shouts of “Merdeka!”, the word for independence.

But not everyone was in the mood to celebrate the half-century, with many hoping for more reflection on the nation’s birthday.

“The explosion of hope from Merdeka has been followed by disillusionment and disappointment,” Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the opposition DAP party, said in a statement.

He highlighted two recent events which have called into question people’s freedom of speech and religion in Malaysia, which has a Muslim majority but a significant number also of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists.

The foreign dignitaries here also include the prime ministers of Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Malaysia, whose geographical location made it a natural trade and cultural bridge which drew European traders several centuries ago, won its independence under its then name Malaya in 1957 and became Malaysia in 1963.

Kuala Lumpur, Friday, AFP