Wisma Putra extends apology to Indonesia over flag error

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24 KUALA LUMPUR- Immigration Department director-general Mustafar Ali and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) managing director Datuk Badlisham Ghazali hold press conference at AV Room, VIP Room, KL International Airport (KLIA) at 0945 (0145 GMT) KUALA LUMPUR- Curtain-raiser by Foreign Minister Anifah Aman(pic) on the forthcoming state visit of King Salman Abdulaziz Al-Saud to Malaysia at press conference room, WP 1 Building, Ministry of Foreign Affairs at 1500 (0700 GMT)

PETALING JAYA: Wisma Putra has extended its apologies to the Indonesian government over the wrongly printed Indonesian flag in the souvenir booklet for the SEA Games opening ceremony on Saturday night.  

Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman (pix) offered assurances that measures had been taken to address the unfortunate situation.  

"Malaysia places importance to its close and deeply rooted fraternal relations with Indonesia. Indeed, the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations this year is an occasion that we have invested in to rededicate ourselves to our shared values, culture and destiny.  

"It is in this spirit that we hope and believe that our two countries will continue to interact closely together and in doing so, strengthen the ties between us and within the region as a whole,” Anifah said in a statement on Sunday.  

Earlier, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin met his Indonesian counterpart Imam Nahrawi to apologise for the inadvertent error that was made by the Malaysian SEA Games Organising Committee (Masoc).  

The two met behind closed doors for 10 minutes, and later told a press conference that the issue was now resolved.

Nahrawi said he had accepted Khairy's apology, and expressed hope that the incident would not be repeated.  

Khairy said he has ordered for the souvenir booklets to be corrected and reprinted.