King cancels official birthday celebrations on Sept 9

PETALING JAYA: The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V has cancelled the Sept 9 official birthday celebrations and the royal tea reception.

In a statement issued on Thursday evening, Comptroller of the Royal Household Datuk Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz vowed that the allocated funds would be returned to the government via Tabung Harapan Malaysia.

“His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V expresses his gratitude to the government which had planned the official events in conjunction with His official birthday celebration for 2018,” the statement read.

The statement, however, continued to state that the other events in conjunction with the King’s birthday will go on as planned.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he was looking at the possibility of ending contributions to the Tabung Harapan Malaysia fund.

He said the government had not picked a date when the fund would close.

“We haven’t decided, maybe next month,” he told reporters after attending a roundtable discussion with Asean business leaders here yesterday.

He noted that the fund showed that Malaysians loved their country and were wil- ling to make sacrifices to overcome the country’s debt issues.

“I think it’s quite clear that people who have given even small amounts of money are willing to help save the country,” he said.

Dr Mahathir had announced the creation of the fund on May 30 to enable Malaysians to make donations to reduce the country’s debt levels. The contributions came to RM179.9mil in total as at 3pm yesterday.