On 31st of August 2012, our nation is 55 years old. 31st of August 1957 is an important date to remember in every single citizen of Malaysia due to it was the day our country achieved independence from Britain. The celebration of Merdeka Day was grand due to it is an important day for every Malaysian. As a student from Institut Pendidikan Guru, I had the chance to celebrate merdeka day in Stadium Bukit Jalil with others because I was going to have choir human graphic performance on that particular day in the year of 2012.
By using LED board with some accessories such as remote control, tripod stand and batteries, we were able to perform choir human graphic. With excited, we were being trained by the instructors for the performance for 6 days which was from 25th of August 2012 to 30th of August 2012. Departing from our IPG Campus Ipoh in the morning of 25th August 2012, we moved to our “new hostels” which was located at College 11 of University Putra Malaysia. After practised for a few days, we had rehearsals for all the performances before the day of merdeka. On 31st of August, we had our dinner at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
Going to the Stadium Bukit Jalil by buses, we spent more minutes than usual as there was a heavy traffic. Police were carried out their duties to block some roads which is near to the Stadium Bukit Jalil. We arrived at the stadium at about 4. 30 p. m. , there were crowded by people with different races, cultures and religions since Malaysia is an united country which is famous with multiraces living together in a country. Many volunteers from NGOs, such as Red Crescent Society, Civil Defence and St. John Ambulance were well prepared when we arrived there.
They carried out their duties in case of any emergency cases happen. Although the celebration begun at 8 p. m. , but we prepared well with all our accessories and LED board in our sit at 5 o’clock in the evening. Due to the people in the stadium is 10,000, we were being ordered by instructors to prepared well and sat at our place early and testing our LED board whether it can function well or not. There were some performances such as wushu, dancing and singing is carried out by the performers before 8 p. m.. We enjoyed watching the performances which is fantastic because of the performances was performed by artists.
Shouting and yelling crazily, the stadium was being filled with our sound. We saw many people in the stadium with different colour of shirts which are red, yellow, green, blue and white. Every corner of the stadium was fully filled with the audience and performers. It looked extraordinary when every group of people sitting together with same colour of shirts which was different from the group next to them. When the clock showed that it was 8 o’clock at night, the celebration started on time. Firstly, the Prime Minister and others ministers had a unity walk with all cameras forcusing on them.
When they were walking along the running track in the Stadium Bukit Jalil, the patriotic songs were played, followed by our national anthem, “Negaraku” when all the ministers were sitting on their own seats. I felt touching when the national anthem was played. Waving different size of flags together by the audience when patriotic songs were played, we felt that it was fabulous. After that, the celebration was continued with the chairman of the ceremony giving his speech followed by our dearest Prime Minister gave his speech. With applause, the prime minister ended his speech. Twitter with our Prime Minister was the following event.
We had broken records of tweet in the same time for 10,000 people and the most tweets in the time of an hour. It was a glorious moment since we were breaking the records. I felt fun to tweet with our Prime Minister, other ministers and the audience whoever in the Stadium Bukit Jalil. Our Prime Minister also gave some rewards for the people who made our country proud. For example, Dato Lee Chong Wei, badminton player who won silver medal in Olympics 2008 and 2012, Dato Nicol David, world champion squash player and Pandelela Rinong who won the bronze medal in the 10m diving event at the 2012 Olympics in London.
All of us clapped our hands with screaming respectfully. Then, the performances which included “Tarian Kilat”, “Songka Gadai” and “ Go Malaysia Go” were started. Having patriotic feeling, I sang with the songs of Jalur Gemilang, Tanggal 31 and others patriotic songs when it were played. All the events were marvellous and fascinated. When we were watching all the events from our seats, we felt that it was very spectacular. I felt happy and interesting as I can watch all the performances by live, feeling the surrounding of the events.
The events were ended by 10. 30 o’clock at night. When it was finished, all the ministers and most of the audience were begun to left the stadium while all of IPGM students still on their seats. Some local singers were performing on the stage of Stadium Bukit Jalil. The lucky draw of that night started at 11 p. m.. There were 2 cars, 4 motorcycles, tickets to London, bicycles, and ipad to be winning back Not that lucky, I do not win anything. We left the seats in the stadium at 12a. m. because of the trafic jams made our buses cannot exit the stadium earlier.
When the event ended, we felt that it was a memorable experience for us in our life. Although we felt tired, we were still very happy and proud to have good performances since it was very meaningful. I felt patriotism after I took part in the event. If there is a chance in future, I am willing to take part again. I learnt that cooperation from everyone is very important to obtain success based on the merdeka day celebration that I had taken part. Cooperation between members while performing our event is the key to have a perfect show.
