MIRI: Miri Indian Association (MIA) will keep pursuing their request for Deepavali to be declared a public holiday in Sarawak.
Its president Karambir Singh said granting the request would enable the local Indian community to celebrate the occasion properly on the same day as their counterparts in Sabah and the peninsula.
“If Sabah has a public holiday for Deepavali despite the low Indian population there, then Sarawak should consider too.
“The Indian population in Sarawak is over 10,000 – thus, qualified enough to deserve a public holiday for the Festival of Lights,” he told The Borneo Post when asked to comment on the matter yesterday.
Sarawak is the only state in Malaysia that lists Deepavali as a working day.
Karambir said there are currently about 1,000 Indians including expatriates here.
However, he said more important than numbers was that making Deepavali a public holiday would be recognising the presence of Indians in the state.
“We have always touted Sarawak as the origin of the 1Malaysia concept and if Deepavali is declared a holiday it would make the statement that we (Sarawak) are the origin of ‘1Malaysia’ more credible,” he added.
This year, Deepavali falls on Oct 29 which is a Saturday, so the Indians here will be able to celebrate it on the day itself. MIA will be celebrating the Festival of Lights earlier at a hotel here on Oct 15.
Despite having just more than 100 registered members, the association has been very active in collaborating with other bodies, including government agencies and organisations, to help develop the Indian community and Miri in general.
Yesterday, The Borneo Post reported Kuching Indian Association (KIA) advisor Anthony Ramanair as saying he was hopeful that their request to the state government to declare Deepavali as a public holiday would be considered.