Don't politicise Merdeka Day: Yahya
Published on: Sunday, August 26, 2012
DEPUTY Chief Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin advised all parties not to politicise the Independence Day due to be celebrated on Aug 31 in the State capital.Responding to Sabah Progressive Party's (SAPP) statement in local newspapers that Sabah's independence is actually 49 years old and not 55, Yahya said it is a small matter and should not be blown out of proportion."Like in the US, some states joined the union after the country's independence such as Hawaii and Alaska. But they never bothered with the date of their joining the States in forming the US," he said.
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Yahya also said that the opposition could not say that the Government never bothered to remember history as the State has always celebrated September 16 annually."It's quite fair. We have Sept 16 as Malaysia Day. But as a nation, we have to go along with the national Independence Day," he added.Yahya said that this issue had been discussed repeatedly over the years and suspect that those who continued making it a national issue possess a different mentality. "We don't want to be independent from the rest of the country. We are 1Malaysia after all," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"It is a free country. If that is what they want to do, then let them go ahead and do it," he said.
