Fully clad in a shirt and pants bearing the motif and bright colours of the Malaysian flag including that of the 1Malaysia logo, Mohd Yusoff Ismail, 58, was a picture of patriotism among the two thousand or so who had gathered in front of Dataran Merdeka for the rally.
His bike was also adorned with numerous Malaysian flags fluttering in the wind.
“I wear this every day between July 1 and Sept 1, every year, in conjunction with the Merdeka month. I’ve been doing this for years.”
Claiming to have stumbled on to the rally by accident, Mohd Yusoff said that as a multiracial country, Malaysians have to remain united especially in the month where the country gained its independence.
A member of the Dewan Usahawan Bumiputera Bersatu Malaysia, a council for Bumiputera entrepreneurs in the country, he also expressed disagreement with the rally organised by a group of student activists.
“The world is watching. We want to celebrate Merdeka so this is not the right time (to protest).
“Even if we are dissatisfied, there are proper channels to express it.
“But we as Malaysians should support and accept whoever our leader is. We can’t accuse someone of having committed a wrongdoing when we don’t know whether we might be wrong.”
The #TangkapMO1 rally today was organised to pressure authorities into pursuing ‘Malaysian Official 1’, who the US Department of Justice named in a civil suit that cited the alleged embezzlement of funds from 1Malaysia Development Berhad.