KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 31 — The extraordinary response from Malaysians from all walks of life who converged at the Dataran Merdeka for the 2022 National Day celebration today reflected its theme of Keluarga Malaysia Teguh Bersama (Malaysian Family Strong Together).

Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa said the unexpected number of visitors was due to the fact that the country had not been able to celebrate National Day on a grand scale for the past years due to Covid-19.

"Some of them were here from last night and the seats were already full after dawn. This is such an extraordinary response, I was also surprised that at 6.45 am the roads were full of parked vehicles," he told reporters after the National Day parade here.

Annuar, who is chairman of the Main Committee for National Day and Malaysia Day 2022 Celebration, said he was satisfied and happy with the success of the parade.

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He was also impressed with the effort and commitment shown by the participants of the parade.

“The timing was also perfect, everything synchronised and working without any glitches,” he said.

Annuar said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah and the Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Hajah Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah also expressed their admiration for the performance of the participants.

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He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob also expressed his thanks for the successful organisation of the National Day parade.

“I would also like to thank all parties, the main committee, technical committee and sub-committee as well as all the participants and contingents who have given their best.

“Hopefully in the future, we can do better and we have another event under this committee which is the Malaysia Day celebration on Sept 16 in Melaka,” he said. — Bernama