‘My Sovereign Malaysia: My Native Land’

Muscat, 30 August, 2013 – Malaysians in Muscat celebrated Hari Merdeka at Rumah Malaysia, Al Khuwair with colorful attires and food.

The event started at 7:30pm with the speech by His Excellency Malaysian Ambassador to Oman, Dato Rustam Yahya.  In his fruitful speech, in conjunction with Merdeka Day, His Excellency Dato Rustam advised the Malaysians in Sultanate to keep away from any kind of demonstrations, making irresponsible remarks about anything, either in conversation, phone call, sms, blog and etc.  

It tickled but the message was clear when he said that, “In most countries, the walls, the trees, even the chairs have ears and eyes especially in the Middle East, where security is of utmost important in their mind.”

His Excellency Dato Rustam Yahya also continued, “Malaysia is truly a blessed country.  When we gain our independence, nobody gave us a chance that we will survive, let alone prosper.  With all the different races and religion, the recipe for troubles was just too great, then and even now.  To foreign observers, it was a miracle but to us Malaysians, we worked for it and we earned it.  Lets keep it that way.”

‘My Sovereign Malaysia: My Native Land’ is the theme for the 56th Merdeka Day celebrations this year and in accordance with the theme, the notion of celebration this year is more intensive on the basics of unity, patriotism, sovereign and national security.

His Excellency Ambassador also took the opportunity to introduce the two new Malaysian Embassy workforce.  From right: Puan Mimi Kaur Ramday (Setiausaha Kedua di Kedutaan), next to her Cik Norwahidah Yahya (Setiausaha Pejabat).

The event continued with the celebration of Eid Fitr with the Rumah Malaysia decorated with Malaysian flag, lively and colorful lights and ketupat.

Guests were also served with truly typical traditional dish – nasi impit, kuah kacang, kuah lodeh, sambal sotong, rendang and not to forget kari daging, ayam tandoori and sate prepared by the Embassy team!  

Also, a big compliment to His Excellency himself for preparing the sumptuous lamb stew served with French bread.  It was yummy!

This ‘kenduri’ type of celebration would not be complete without another tables serving dessert!  Other than the spread of a must have kuih raya – kuih suji, kuih Mazola, kuih bangkit and tart nenas, of course the highlight was the Merdeka cake especially made for this event made of oreo cheese cake.

It was also the same day the wife of His Excellency, Datin Dr Musrifah Rustam celebrated her birthday.  It was celebrated joyfully with all the guests.

The event was attended by approximately 200 Malaysians from all over the Sultanate and it ended approximately 11:00pm with contentment for everyone.

While in Malaysia, Hari Merdeka is celebrated with parade and fireworks, in Sultanate of Oman, we celebrated this day with a lot of happy faces and enthusiasm, the spirit that we bring from our homeland.

Alhamdulillah.