KUALA LUMPUR – Financial institution Bank Rakyat received brickbats over a gaffe it made in an Independence Day Facebook post on the formation of Malaysia.
The renowned bank had claimed in the post that Malaysia was formed in 1957, although it is factually established that the formation of the country in its current state was done on September 16, 1963.
“After signing an agreement in 1957, this beloved country became known as Malaysia,” the post on its official Facebook profile read, as reported by The Vibes’ Bahasa Malaysia sister publication Getaran.
The post had raised the ire of netizens, the majority of which were from Sabah and Sarawak.
Their anger comes as no surprise as Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore only joined the existing states of the Federation of Malaya following the historic Malaysia Agreement in 1963.
“Even a large institution like Bank Rakyat was wrong about history. Malaysia was only formed on September 16, 1963. Why is this fact being twisted?” asked a Facebook user who went by the name Adrian Banie Lasimbang.
“Who is Bank Rakyat’s Facebook admin? Malaysia (never) existed in 1957. Are you blind to history?” another user, Ahzam Zambrie Mojung, wrote.
Another netizen, Julien Chen, said: “This is what happens when you don’t pay attention in history class. Malaysia was only (formed) in 1963, idiot.”
Apart from the formation of Malaysia, Bank Rakyat’s post had also contained other factual errors, including the claim that Malaysia was called the Malayan Union prior to Independence Day on August 31, 1957.
However, according to a Form 4 history textbook, all states in Peninsular Malaysia were known as the Federation of Malaya at the time, prior to Merdeka.
On the other hand, the Malayan Union proposed by the British colonialists was widely rejected by the Malays due to a host of unfavourable policies.
“Bank Rakyat is among the most recognisable financial institutions and yet they are unable to do a simple Google search to verify facts for their own Merdeka trivia? Embarrassing,” said netizen Nathan Tharmalingam. – The Vibes, August 29, 2021
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