Yesterday (Wednesday, 31st August), we celebrated Malaysia’s 65th Independence Day! People had already arrived at Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) as early as 4am to catch the long-awaited Merdeka Parade! There were performances, marches, beautiful attractions and surprise celebrity appearances. Needless to say, the celebration yesterday was an eventful one!
While there were so many amazing things that happened at the parade, there were also some unfortunate events that happened as well. Our Independence Day is meant to be a joyful one where people can make amazing memories as well as remember the sacrifices made by those before us. That said, it’s also important to remember to take care of public property while we’re having fun.
Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) posted a video and several photos on their official Facebook yesterday evening showing how the public showed little to no care about the environment and plants they were damaging while trying to catch a glimpse of the Merdeka Parade. In the video and photos, we can see some civilians gathering around while stepping on the landscapes to watch the celebration.
The admin for the page first expressed how excited they were to see the large crowd gathering together to celebrate our Independence Day but was then disappointed to see how the people mistreated their surroundings. “Don’t you feel guilty for damaging the beautifully sown landscapes? The Merdeka spirit is there but this is not the way,” DBKL captioned.
After the post went viral, netizens commented with many saying that the event was not as organised as it should’ve been in terms of crowd control. While they agree that the damage was bad, the organisers should’ve done a better job at barricading certain areas to protect public properties. Other than barricades, netizens also believed that there should’ve been more designated areas for the crowd to watch the parade.
Other than the landscape damages, netizens also posted other things that had happened at the parade. Points were definitely made when netizens said there should’ve been more designated areas for everyone to watch the celebration safely. Since many were excited to watch the show, some were willing to catch the whole celebration from the LRT stations, staircases and some even climbed up walls to get a better view.
While this is not necessarily surprising, it’s still disappointing to see how much garbage there were on the streets after the event ended. However, a Twitter user revealed that everything was spotless by 6pm thanks to the foreign cleaners who they described as the real heroes of yesterday.
