Merdeka! Merdeka!

The Commitment of Some

Its great to witness history happening at the Padang Merdeka this Merdeka Day. Today we are celebrating the 49th Merdeka Day Celebration. Sarawak plays host and as the days approached everyone was eager to give their best ever performance. Why I say so is because of the intensity of the preparation, I know of one woman who collapsed and died during rehearsal. She hailed from Rumah Austin, my Bawang Assan Longhouse. She was not in the best of health but had wanted to participate in the Merdeka March Parade representing the Dayak Women's Society (Serakup Indu Dayak). May God bless her soul. Relatives came from Bawang Assan and Sibu to pay their last respect and commended on her commitment and she was laid to rest at the Methodist Iban Cemetery Kuching two days before Merdeka. Rest in Peace.

The Merdeka Day Celebration

From here onwards I will let the pictures do the talking. There was a delay in posting the photos because I took a few hundred of them and it was not easy selecting the best for this blog to represent what Merdeka is all about - so I narrowed it to a few photos representing our children, our heroes, our leaders and our future - that is Malaysia.

The set is ready - our Guard of Honour gets ready

The Honourable Prime Minister salutes the Guards

The beautiful children of Malaysia

Daulat Tuanku

We proud Malaysians, We Sarawakians

Ambassadors of the World witnessing our Colourful Culture

Future Pillars of our Country - Khidmat Negara Trainees with the Jalur Gemilang

Our past Heroes led by Kanang Anak Langkau whose bravery is well written of

Importance of Education and the tribute to the Teachers who guide our Future Leaders

The Environment - Living in harmony with Nature and promoting sustainable development

Futuristic Outlook - forging ahead towards being a Developed Nation

Always Aiming High - Malaysia's future Angkasawan - Proud to be Malaysians

It has been a tiring week - though the Merdeka Celebrations Parade ended in the afternoon of the 31st August 2006 for the crowd. It was not so for the Civil Servants who were showing the foreign diplomats around the City explaining the beauty that Sarawak is. Most left by 2nd September 2006 and the days of sleepless nights had taken its toll on me that I slept the days away missing the Regatta 2006 that weekend. To date I have yet to recover as I also discoeverd that my immune system is not as good as it used to be. Hopefully I can recover soon and accept Blueheeler's invitation for lunch (as he is in Sarawak now). See you soon Danny Boy.

Comments

Excellent photos as usual! I'll have to use some of these for my thesis, with your permission of course. Yes, let's do lunch...
Danny & Groovy - my next stop is some Oxygen Therapy. Been sick for more than a week and I am just recovering. It was a week's hell of a blast that I missed the Regatta and the TYT's Birthday :(