Published on August 31st, 2023 | by Sounder Rajen

2023 Merdeka Parade At Putrajaya Featured A Royal Enfield Convoy

The Merdeka parade also saw a few helicopters and fighter jets fly overhead

Ever since Malaysia gained her independence, we Malaysians have had a proud tradition of celebrating this momentous occasion every single year on 31 August, our independence day, in a grand fashion with parades, and this year, the Merdeka parade featured a convoy of Royal Enfield motorcycles as well. Here’s how it went.

Okay, so this year, as Malaysia celebrates its 66^th independence day, a Merdeka day parade took place at Putrajaya Sentral, and we left bright (not really) and early before 4am from my place in SS15. We arrived at the stadium after a quick breakfast at about 5.30 and a relatively long walk as there was no parking nearby.

Moreover, there is a joke here somewhere about Malaysians loving to queue up for hours on end for no reason, I am far too tired to make it as I write this so let’s just move on. We had to push through a massive crowd of people to reach a quiet corner of the Merdeka parade area where we could sit and watch it.

Now, according to the itinerary, the Royal Enfield motorcycles were slated to do some tricks with ramps and ride around in a convoy type setting. However, this took place in the centre of the parade, where only people with an entry pass could enter so the rest of us had to watch it from a distance. This really took the fun out of it.

Firstly, not only were there restless children (no doubt, forced to be at the Merdeka parade by their parents) who were crying and kicking everyone present as they had no interest in being there, but the sheer crowd of people made moving around, even slightly, extremely hard to do.

On top of that, the only part of the Merdeka parade close enough to where we were to see was the marching band, adorned in red and blue. They were friendly and more than willing to take pictures for anyone who asked, and at almost 9am, a few helicopters and fighter jets flew by dropping off a few surprises.

As a quick PSA, parents, if you’re going to force your kids somewhere they don’t want to be, at least, discipline them and make sure they are not a nuisance to everyone else. Sadly, we were unable to get any good pictures of the Royal Enfield motorcycles at the Merdeka Parade due to the distance.