Remembering the roots.

In about an hour, Malaysia would turn 51.

It’s time we cherish the moment, put aside all our differences, our insufficiencies, our beliefs, and celebrate what we all have in common - being proud citizens of Malaysia.

This year, tehCpeng.net would be paying tribute to Mohamad Hamzah, an architect, who 61 years ago, designed Malaysia’s national flag. I guess nobody would be more proud to have his own design paraded all over the country 24/7 for 51 whole years.

It’s every designer’s wet dream I tell you.

Like this humongous one erected only once a year every Merdeka month atop the Sultan Iskandar Building.

To commemorate his achievement, I tried to replicate how would his sketch look like as he made a proposal for a flag design competition held in 1947. Okay - he might not have used English in his sketches, and the Jalur Gemilang isn’t known as the Jalur Gemilang until 1997.

Also, Mohamad Hamzah first designed his flag to have a five-pointed star instead of the 14-pointed one on the flags we see flying today.

So for today’s sake, let’s just assume he did all that on his sketches.

Happy 51st Birthday Malaysia!