SHAH ALAM, 14 August 2009 – PROTON Holdings Berhad today launched a month long program for the 2009 Merdeka celebration with 1Malaysia spirit as its thrust and reaching out to the public as its modus operandi.
The PROTON Merdeka celebration program, themed as “One Journey, One With Malaysia”, was launched and announced today by its Managing Director, Dato’ Haji Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir in a ceremony held at its headquarters in PROTON Centre of Excellence Complex in Shah Alam.
Dato’ Syed Zainal Abidin said, “As clearly indicated through its theme, the month-long programme is not only to celebrate Merdeka but also to respond to the call made by the Prime Minister on 1Malaysia. After all, the 1Malaysia aspiration has long been ingrained in the setting and culture of PROTON.”
The highlight of the PROTON Merdeka Celebration, which will run from 15th August to 15th September, is the ‘PROTON Merdeka Convoy’, a road convoy made up of various Proton models including the first Saga saloon and the latest Exora MPV. The convoy will be making stops at four of PROTON’s adopted schools under the “PINTAR” project and six orphanages within the states of Penang, Perak, Selangor and Kelantan.
At each stop, the convoy, made up of PROTON staff from its Headquarters in Shah Alam, and branch offices from the respective areas, will carry out “gotong-royong” activity with the children to decorate each school and orphanage with Malaysian flags. To further liven up the Merdeka spirit, a variety of Merdeka-themed activities have been planned for the PINTAR school children such as colouring contests, short essay-writing competition and “Puisi” writing competition. As stops at the orphanages will fall during the fasting month, the convoy will instead carry out cleaning and repairing activities at the charity homes as well as breaking fast and performing Terawikh prayers with the children.
“Our main objective is to extend our existing outreach programme by focusing on celebrating the country’s independence with children, in particular those living in the city outskirts and the unfortunate ones.”
“As a GLC and a national car maker, we feel that it is our duty to give children all the attention they need and to play our role as part of the responsible and caring society in nurturing and educating them so that they will grow up to be better leaders in future. We celebrate with them and share with them stories about PROTON’s experiences so that they can learn from our mistakes and not repeat them.”
“As a response to the call for 1Malaysia, we strongly believe that poor and unfortunate children must not be left out, especially in celebrating Merdeka. Our aim is to help instil the spirit of Merdeka in these children, so that they would know and understand the true meaning of Merdeka, appreciate and be proud of it” explained Dato’ Syed Zainal Abidin.
Dato’ Syed Zainal Abidin continued to say that “The theme ‘One Journey, One With Malaysia’ also speaks of our journey as the first national car-manufacturer making bold in-roads in the automotive industry – an industry that was pretty much alien to our country back then – and of our growth with Malaysia and Malaysians after 24 fine years. “
“As an entity, just like the Nation, PROTON has had our fair share of ups and downs but we are grateful that we have been able to get back on our feet each time we fell. It has been a meaningful learning process for us and we owe it to our country, its people and our leaders for the support they’ve given us. The journey has been rough but we have definitely taken them as valuable lessons for us to move forward with more confidence.”
The programme is also the mini roll out of PROTON’s 25th year anniversary celebration next year.
Apart from the Merdeka Convoy, PROTON will also be organizing a ‘1Malaysia Dress Your Car Contest’ where all Proton car owners will be invited to take part by dressing up their cars creatively with the 1Malaysia concept. Other activities lined up during the month long celebration include the distribution of 70,000 car stickers depicting the theme of the celebration to PROTON customers through PROTON’s sales and service network nationwide. The convoy will also be giving away Jalur Gemilangs to schools in the Shah Alam and Tanjung Malim vicinity and to the general public.
On the corporate front, PROTON will also be participating in the March Past parade at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium to be held on 31 August and will be airing its TV commercial from 25th August onwards on various local TV stations highlighting the concept of togetherness and Malaysia as a unique country. The full version of the TV commercial will be aired concurrently on the online versions of few mainstream newspapers as well as a few other youth related websites
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