Since Malaysia’s independence in 1957, it has been a time-honoured tradition for the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) to hoist the Jalur Gemilang (Malaysian flag) during National Day celebrations every year.

It first started on the Declaration of Independence Day on Aug 31, 1957, when the Federation of Malaya flag was raised by the navy’s Chief Petty Officer Seaman Awang Mohd Salleh, Chief Petty Officer Oliver Cuthbert Samuel, and Lt Commander (Rtd) Mohd Sharif Kalam.

Explaining the meaning behind the significance of this tradition, RMN Headquarters Ceremonial Staff Officer, Commander Jantan Abdul Hamid said it is due to the navy’s ageless tradition of hoisting and lowering the RMN flag daily.

“The tradition is known as ‘colours and sunset’ where the RMN flag is raised at 8 am in the morning and lowered at sunset onboard all ships and bases on land,” he told Bernama during the first-day rehearsal of the 2023 National Day celebrations at Dataran Putrajaya, here today.

Jantan said seven RMN personnel, led by a petty officer and senior seaman, will be involved in this year’s flag-raising ceremony.

Bernama surveyed the first-day rehearsals at Dataran Putrajaya, which started at 7.15 this morning and ended with an airshow at 11 am, and found crowds of people watching the performances.

Meanwhile, the 2023 National Day and Malaysia Day celebrations Works Committee secretary, Mazlan Abd Mutalib said the rehearsals focused on time management and coordination among the performing teams and the parade.

“We will have a post-mortem with everyone involved to fine-tune all the performances between 8 am and 10.30 am on Thursday (Aug 31). The full rehearsal will be on Tuesday,” he said.

As to the 2023 National Day ‘wow factor’, Mazlan, who is also the Ministry of Communications and Digital, senior undersecretary (management), said the daredevil jump over a fleet of 66 Royal Enfield motorcycles by the Army Red Warriors and precision skydiving by the Royal Malaysia Police VAT69 Commando team will certainly be crowd favourites.

The 2023 National Day celebration themed ‘Malaysia MADANI: Tekad Perpaduan, Penuhi Harapan’ (Determination in Unity, Fulfilling Hope) will be held at Dataran Putrajaya here on August 31.

Putrajaya previously hosted the National Day parade in 2003, 2005, 2018, and 2019.

An estimated crowd of 100,000 people is expected to attend the event and numerous government agencies, government-linked corporations, and non-governmental organisations are hard at work preparing to make the day a success.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency