Merdeka: National Days of Some of Our Neighbours

We’re a day away from our 48th National Day. Or you could summarize it as follows (number in brackets show years of independence. Gee, I hope you figured that much yourselves…):

Malaysia – August 31, 1957 (48 years)
simon talks: “Damn proud to be a Malaysian.”

What about other Asian countries? Here’s what I gathered:

India – August 15, 1947 (58 years)
simon talks: “I remember Ben Kingsley as Gandhi…”

Singapore – August 9, 1965 (40 years)
simon talks: “Don’t go to JB or use the Causeway that weekend…”

Sri Lanka – Feb. 4, 1948 (57 years)
simon talks: “When will they just stop fighting?”

Bangladesh – March 26, 1971 (34 years)
simon talks: “probably Malaysia’s 4th largest ethnic group…”

Brunei – February 23, 1984 (21 years)
simon talks – “no petrol shortage here, that’s for sure…”

Myanmar – January 4, 1948 (57 years)
simon talks – “Free Aung San Suu Kyi!”

Cambodia – November 9, 1953 (52 years)
simon talks: “I need to watch Killing Fields again.”

China – October 1, 1949 (56 years)
simon talks – “its 56 years, or 5000 years, depending on how you look at it…”

East Timor – May 20, 2002 (3 years)
simon talks – “in Bahasa Indonesia, would that be Timor Timur…?”

Philipines – June 12, 1946 (59 years)
simon talks – “how many islands are there again…?”

Indonesia – August 17, 1945 (60 years)
simon talks – “I hate kretek. And the haze.”

Thailand – December 5, every year.
simon talks- “Err, they don’t have one. Something to do with the fact that they’ve never been colonized.”

For a comprehensive list of all the national days across the world, check out this Wiki.