MOST 30-year-olds will see Malaysia Day as just another public holiday, but not Aubrey Ng, a Kuching-born lawyer practising in Kuala Lumpur.

For her, September 16 is a time to reflect with great satisfaction and a wry smile on the small role she played to help get the date the Federation of Malaysia was formed in 1963, formally recognised as a national holiday and an important day in the country’s history.

Aubrey, the eldest daughter of the former PKR Sarawak chief and assemblyman Dominique Ng, was part of the team that supported her father’s efforts in campaigning for more recognition to be given to Malaysia Day.

Many credit Dominique as the man who pushed for September 16 to be recognised nationally as it is far more important for Sarawakians than the August 31 Merdeka Day, which marks independence from British colonial rule for Malaya.

Sarawak had already been granted independent self-rule by the British on July 22, 1963, and was autonomous when it formed the Federation of Malaysia with Malaya, Sabah and Singapore. Singapore left the federation two years later.

For nearly a decade, from 2005 until 2014, Dominique faithfully held a flag-raising ceremony of the Malaysia and Sarawak flags at Kuching’s Padang Merdeka with just a handful of like-minded nationalists.

Every time September 16 rolled up, Aubrey would also be part of the team of her father’s friends helping to organise the ceremony.

“Yes, you could say I had a small part playing a supporting role in my father’s play in getting Malaysia Day recognised,” she said when relating her experience to The Malaysian Insight.

She began attending the ceremony in her late teens, and her most vivid memory is of the large number of policemen present.

“There were more policemen than those of us attending the ceremony.”

Before Sabah and Sarawak began observing Malaysia Day in 2010, any ceremonies linked to the day were deemed an “anti-national” act.

“It used to feel like we were doing something rebellious because every time we did the flag-raising, the police would try to stop us on the premise of holding illegal assembly,” Aubrey said.

She said the large number of policemen aroused the curiosity of passers-by and onlookers and a small group of people would form “wondering what we were doing”.

Aubrey’s father would later write in his diary My Reminisces on Malaysia Day about how the police would harass him to stop the ceremonies.

Dominique said they would always demand to know if he had a permit to hold an assembly.

The defiant Dominique would tell them there was no point in applying for one because he was certain no permit would ever be given to him.

Aubrey said her formal education on Malaysia Day started late – when she was a young teen in secondary school, in either Form 1 or 2.

She said when she became aware of the absence of any mention of it in her history textbook, she asked her history teacher about it.

“Why are we (Sarawak) celebrating Merdeka Day but not Malaysia Day,” she remembered asking her teacher at SMK St Teresa in Kuching.

She said her teacher’s terse reply was: “I don’t know why”.

Aubrey said she found that “a little sad, seeing how our teachers are seemingly not fully aware of the subjects they are actually teaching”.

The last time Aubrey joined her father for the flag raising ceremony was at the Kuching waterfront in 2014.

Then 22, dressed in a chequered shirt over a tank top and skin tight jeans – she stood next to her rather formally dressed father at the waterfront to read the Sarawak proclamation.

She said she actually got the chance to raise a flag. As usual, they were joined by a handful of friends.

It was held at the waterfront because their usual spot, Padang Merdeka, was the venue of the national-level Malaysia Day ceremonies in the evening.

“I guess for me, Malaysia Day means that finally Sarawak, as well as Sabah, is finally being viewed as a larger entity rather than just as an afterthought in the idea of Malaysia as a country,” she said.

Aubrey said in her four years on the peninsula, she had felt and experienced how “we east Malaysians are viewed as almost an add-on”.

“Never as a part of Malaysia. So, recognition of Malaysia Day is very much a milestone for us east Malaysians.” – September 16, 2021.