I wish to rebut the letter from Hawkeyes of Sabah & Sarawak who mentioned that Malaysia's independence day is supposed to be the 40 th anniversary of the federation of Malaysia as it was formed on Sept 16, 1963.

Firstly, the federation of Malaya was formed on Aug 31, 1957. Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore entered the federation on Sept 16, 1963. Malaya was then renamed to Malaysia. The three states

were an extension to an existing federation. They were merged into Malaysia. This merger was clearly defined in the Malaysia proclamation by Tunku Abdul Rahman. No new nation was created.

This logic has been applied to other cases where nation states entered a federation. When the Russians sold Alaska to the United States in 1867 for US$7.2 million, it was made another state in the United States of America. The independence day of the United States is still celebrated on the July 4th which is the original day the Declaration Of Independence was signed by the 13 American colonies in 1776.

I see no reason for the Hawkeyes of Sabah & Sarawak to be disappointed with the fact that the Malaysian national day is celebrated on Aug 31 every year. In my opinion, such matters are extremely trivial and should not be harped on unnecessarily.

Let us all work together to get rid of the mentality that we're Sarawakian, Sabahan or even Johorian first and Malaysians second.

We're one nation now. We've got bigger problems at stake such as racism and corruption. These are the real issues we should be focusing at.

The best way to do is as a family of Malaysians. After all, East Malaysia or West Malaysia, deep down, we're still Orang Malaysia at heart.

Selamat Hari Merdeka.