MALAYSIA has formally apologised to the government and people of Indonesia for the wrong depiction of the Indonesian flag in the official Kuala Lumpur Sea Games souvenir booklet.

The apology was made by Foreign Minister Anifah Aman in a statement today.

“On behalf of the Government of Malaysia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to express regret for the inadvertent error made by the Malaysian Organising Committee (Masoc) for the wrong publication of the Indonesian flag in the official souvenir booklet of the Opening Ceremony of the 29th Sea Games, held yesterday.” said Anifah.

“In this regard, we wish to assure the Government of the Republic of Indonesia that all measures have been taken to address this unfortunate situation.

“Sports Minister Khairy Jamaludddin, on behalf of the Organising Committee has met his counterpart, Imam Nahwari, the Indonesian minister of youth and sports, to explain the regrettable error and convey his apology on behalf of Msaoc.” said Anifah.

Anifah said Malaysia hoped the two countries would continue to interact closely together and strengthen ties, and that  “close and deeply rooted” relations with Indonesia were highly valued. 

The Kuala Lumpur SEA Games official opening last night was marred by the error in the official souvenir booklet.

Imam tweeted a picture of the offending page in the SEA Games souvenir book, which showed an upside-down Indonesian flag.

“The opening of #SEAgame2017 was good, but marred by a fatal negligence that is very painful. Our flag…. Red White,” Imam tweeted.

Khairy met Imam today to personally apologise over the mistake.

“This is a very grave mistake, and on behalf of the host, I apologise to Bapak Imam and all Indonesians over this very serious error,” Khairy told a media conference after the 20-minute meeting.

Imam said his government acknowledged the apology and would soon report to President Joko Widodo for further action.

Kompas.com quoted the Indonesian minister as saying he hoped the such a mistake would not be repeated.

“We acknowledge what Khairy conveyed to us, and will forward it to President Joko Widodo. I hope this mistake will not be repeated because a flag is a country’s symbol that must be respected. And the SEA Games is an event that everybody respects.”

Joko was quoted as saying the misprint was “deeply regrettable”,  but there was no need to prolong the issue. 

He said Indonesians should not dwell on the matter.

Police say they are investigating how the misprint happened. – August 20, 2017.