KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 ― A capsule is journeying across the country gathering soil from each state for a Malaysia Day campaign to show unity in diversity.

The #seedingMYhope campaign, led by writer Niki Cheong, involves ordinary Malaysians contributing soil, mainly from their homes, extracted from each of the country’s 13 states.

According to Cheong, seeds will be planted in the soil at the end of the campaign on September 16 in the hope of growing flowers.

“The soil may or may not look different, like Malaysians, but it all comes from the same land, our ‘tanah air’,” Cheong told Malay Mail Online today.

“We really wanted people to see #seedingMYhope as a chance to reflect on where we as Malaysians come from ― and connect us to our roots (hence soil ― ‘tanah’) ― and from there, share their hopes for the country,” he added.

The capsule in the 17-day campaign, which started on Merdeka Day on August 31, is being driven around to each state by vehicles affiliated to transport mobile app MyTeksi. It will be couriered instead to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu in Sarawak and Sabah, with MyTeksi delivering the capsule to Malaysians in the states, according to Cheong.

Cheong said the #seedingMYhope campaign was the third edition of his annual “Hari Merdeka to Malaysia Day” campaign that had started with his 50x50 My Malaysia project in 2013, when he collected stories from Malaysians across the country during his journey to all 13 states in 15 days.

“This year, for #seedingMYhope, I wanted to include some of the people we had met and spoken to over the last two years ― so the capsule idea was born.

“The people contributing soil are a mix of those we had worked with or spoke to in the past as well as new people we had never met or worked with,” said the writer.

The soil capsule will arrive at the Pavilion shopping mall in the capital city here on September 15, a day before Malaysia Day, to be displayed at the #seedingMYhope installation, said Cheong.