There was a commotion over the weekend when Malaysia had mistakenly printed an error for the Indonesian flag on the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian (SEA) Games booklet.
The Indonesian flag, which has 2 stripes, red on top and white below, was misprinted upside down. As a result, the error made Indonesian flag look like a Poland flag. Needless to say, this did not go unnoticed.
Indonesia’s Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi tweeted that although the grand opening was impressive, it was affected by a “deeply hurtful fatal negligence”. “We will definitely protest. We are also waiting for a direct apology from the government of Malaysia. How can such a big and special event be tarnished by this? This is really very careless and we are very, very disappointed. This has injured us as a great nation … It should not be allowed to happen again, especially as this is a very open event, watched by millions of eyes,” Imam said in a separate statement.
Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who is also the Malaysia SEA Games Organising Committee (MASOC) chairman, replied his tweet, saying, “Bapak Imam, please accept my sincere apologies for this. There was no malice. I very much regret that this mistake happened. My apologies.”
Bapak Imam, Please accept my sincere apologies for this. Sesungguhnya tiada niat jahat. Saya amat kesal dengan kesilapan ini. Mohon maaf.
— Khairy Jamaluddin 🇲🇾🌺 (@Khairykj) August 19, 2017
Yesterday (20th August), Khairy met up with his Indonesian counterpart to personally apologise over the mistake. During the meeting, the 41-year-old minister also stated that distribution of the aforementioned booklet has been stopped. A new version of the souvenir booklet with the accurate Indonesian flag will be issued.
“We’re both good friends and I know Khairy is always prioritising the good relationship between our 2 countries. But we hope this issue will not be repeated again,” Imam told the press. Besides praising Malaysia for the swift action, he also assured that “this does not change the relationship and friendship between Indonesia and Malaysia in any way”.
https://twitter.com/imam_nahrawi/status/899233389202374656
It’s good to know that both Khairy and Imam were able to settle this issue on a positive note 😉
Sources: Channel NewsAsia, The Star/ Featured image: Pinterest.
